Roger Stone’s got a bone to pick.
The longtime confidant of President Donald Trump on Monday lamented his trial as unfair and led by partisan fiends during his first public appearance since the president commuted his sentence last week. Speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Stone named federal prosecutors and Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who presided over his case in federal court in D.C., as denying him a fair trial.
“Well, this is the most horrible experience you can have, because I see immediately why 99 percent of the people who choose to plead not guilty and go to trial lose,” Stone said, “when you’re up against the horrific and deep-pocketed resources of the federal government and these really sadistic, arrogant, politically motivated prosecutors."
“I’ve got to become convinced I can get a fair second trial,” Stone added. “Because I certainly didn’t get a fair first trial.”
Trump granted Stone clemency on Friday after the Republican strategist and self-described “dirty trickster” was sentenced to more than three years in prison for trying to impede congressional and FBI investigations. A jury found Stone found guilty on the charges last year in a dramatic and heavily publicized case as part of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election.
Stone had tried to delay his prison sentence, maintaining that he was susceptible to complications from the coronavirus. But a federal appeals court shut down his request on Friday, shortly before his commutation. Stone was set to surrender himself to a federal prison in Jesup, Ga., only days later.
Trump did not pardon Stone, meaning his convictions still stand. Still, the president could issue a full pardon at any time he is president. Stone told ABC News in a recent interview that Trump expressed optimism that the convictions could be removed on appeal.
Attorney General William Barr said during and interview with ABC News last week that he found Stone’s sentencing to be just.
"I think the prosecution was righteous and I think the sentence the judge ultimately gave was fair," Barr said.
But Trump and his allies have claimed that Stone was unfairly tried by a court rigged with people hostile to the president. Hannity also repeated that view, saying Stone was denied an impartial jury.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Friday: “Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency. There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia.”
Speaking with Hannity, Stone repeated the sentiment, saying that he was up against a “stacked jury” and a “biased judge.” During his trial, Stone had several tête-à-têtes with Jackson. At one point, he posted a picture of her with crosshairs on his Instagram account in February 2019. Stone later apologized for the post and tried to downplay the crosshairs as a Celtic symbol. Jackson and Stone’s interactions in the courthouse would at times get heated, with both sides showing frustration with the other.
Stone on Monday also went after federal prosecutors involved in his case, who he said mounted a cruel effort against him as they realized Mueller’s report would not prove criminal wrongdoing by the president. (The report did not charge Trump with criminal activity, but it also did not exonerate him.)
Stone called Andrew Weissmann, a top prosecutor on Mueller’s team, “the most ethically bankrupt prosecutor I’ve ever come across,” accusing him of political bias in his investigation into the president. Stone also said prosecutor Jeannie Rhee, who is of Korean descent, “has all the charm of a North Korean prison guard,” and laid into her for her donations to Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton.
Stone also used his airtime to thank conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and the family of former national security adviser Mike Flynn for supporting him during his trial and speaking out on his behalf.
He also thanked God and Trump for keeping him from behind bars.
“I was literally hours away from being sent to a Covid-infested prison,” Stone said.
Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.
Source: politico.com
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