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NEWS FEBRUARY 24, 2020 ¦ 13

Prison or Pardon:
Stone Sentencing Outgrows Stone

By Jacqueline Thomsen

Roger Stone (left) and Alex Jones (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)
Thursday’s sentencing of Roger Stone, the team filed a second motion for a new trial under
longtime Trump ally who often took on a big- seal, noting it “had already been put off once.”
ger-than-life personality, has now become a “I think delaying the sentencing would not be
case that’s bigger than Stone. the prudent thing to do,” she said on the phone
In the past week and a half, Stone’s sentencing has conference. None of the parties were in the room.
become a forum for accusations of political inter- Not mentioned at the conference were the myriad
ference by the Trump Justice Department, the final other topics surrounding the sentencing. Stone’s
straw for at least one career prosecutor at the U.S. case has served as a conduit for questions about the
Attorney’s Office for D.C. and the topic of many Justice Department’s handling of politically sensi-
tweets from President Donald Trump. tive criminal cases under Attorney General William
Speculation around a presidential pardon has also Barr, including that of Trump’s former national se-
gained steam, amid other pardons Trump handed curity adviser Michael Flynn.
down this week. In the Stone case, the original line prosecutors
What Stone’s sentence ultimately ends up being is who obtained the guilty verdict all withdrew from
in U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s hands. the case after Main Justice announced it would
During a scheduling conference on Tuesday, she was step in and recommend a lighter sentence than the
unwilling to delay sentencing after Stone’s defense
¦ Continued on PAGE 14

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