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NEWS FEBRUARY 24, 2020 ¦ 19

Roger Stone Sentenced
To 40 Months in Prison

By Jacqueline Thomsen and C. Ryan Barber
Roger Stone, the longtime Trump ally whose case
set off a tidal wave of allegations of political in-
terference by the Trump Justice Department,
was sentenced Thursday to three years and four
months in prison.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the
District of Columbia handed down sentences on
other charges to be served at the same time as the
40-month term, as well as financial penalties.
Jackson made it clear throughout the sentencing
hearing that Stone alone is responsible for both his
conduct and his prosecution, regardless of claims
made by him and others to the contrary.
“He has not been prosecuted by his adversar-
ies or anyone else’s adversaries,” Jackson said. “He
was not prosecuted by anyone to gain political ad-
vantage.” Roger Stone

“It arose because Roger Stone characteristically circumstances in this case, that may be the most
injected himself right in the center of one of the pernicious.”
most significant issues of the day,” she said “The truth still exists. The truth still matters,”
Jackson further reiterated the argument made by Jackson said.
prosecutors during the trial, that Stone lied to pro- Stone had a tight, half-smile as he exited the
tect President Donald Trump. courtroom Thursday. When asked for comment,
“Stone knew that some would view it as incrimi- Stone said, “No, I have nothing to say.”
nating for both him and the campaign if he asserted Jackson granted several enhancements to Stone’s
his right to not testify and said nothing,” Jackson sentence, siding with arguments made by DOJ pros-
said. “So he lied instead.” ecutors that Stone’s conduct both in relation to his
And she said that while others have described charges and after his indictment last year merited a
Stone’s conduct as sometimes being like that of an substantial period of incarceration.
adolescent, it wasn’t appropriate for his case. She homed in on Stone’s prevention of other po-
“The problem is that nothing about this case was a tential witnesses like Randy Credico and Jerome
joke. It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t a stunt,” Jackson said. Corsi from testifying with the House Intelligence
“He showed flagrant disregard for the institutions Committee’s Russia investigation as meriting an en-
of government established by the Constitution in- hancement to the sentencing guidelines.
cluding Congress and this court,” she continued. She sparred with a new lawyer hired by Stone last
“And I would venture to say that many adolescents week, Seth Ginsberg, on whether it mattered that
know the difference.” special counsel Robert Mueller still spoke with those
She ripped Stone’s attorneys defending him in same witnesses as part of that investigation.
closing arguments by saying “so what?”: “Of all the
¦ Continued on PAGE 20

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