Donald Trump’s long-time confidant Roger Stone sentenced to 40 months
Donald Trump loyalist Roger Stone has been handed more than three years in jail despite the US President live tweeting his sentencing hearing and calling for “fairness”.
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Donald Trump loyalist and ally Roger Stone has been sentenced to 40 months in federal prison, following an extraordinary move by Attorney General William Barr to back off his Justice Department’s original sentencing recommendation.
US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone’s crimes demanded a significant time behind bars, but she said the seven to nine years originally recommended by the Justice Department were excessive.
Stone’s lawyers had asked for a sentence of probation, citing his age of 67 years, his health and his lack of criminal history.
Stone was convicted in November on all seven counts of an indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign co-ordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election.
While Stone was being sentenced, Mr Trump took to Twitter to call for “Fairness”.
“They say Roger Stone lied to Congress.†@CNN OH, I see, but so did Comey (and he also leaked classified information, for which almost everyone, other than Crooked Hillary Clinton, goes to jail for a long time), and so did Andy McCabe, who also lied to the FBI! FAIRNESS?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020
Earlier, Mr Trump took to Twitter to denounce as a “miscarriage of justice” the initial recommendation by Justice Department prosecutors that Stone receive at least seven years in prison.
Attorney General William Barr then backed off that recommendation, prompting four prosecutors to quit Stone’s case.
US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said during the hearing that Stone’s use of social media to stoke public sentiment against the prosecution and the court was intended to reach a wide audience, including using a photo of Ms Jackson with crosshairs superimposed.
After Stone’s lawyer, Seth Ginsberg, repeated the defence team’s plea that Stone get no prison time, Stone declined to address the court.
Stone is the sixth Trump aide or adviser to be convicted of charges brought as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Mr Barr became the first sitting member of the Trump Cabinet to publicly rebuke him.
saying the president’s tweets were making it “impossible” for him to do his job.
TRUMP GOES AFTER BLOOMBERG’S POOR DEBATE PERFORMANCE
It came after Mr Trump attacked Michael Bloomberg’s first debate performance as “stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent”.
“Mini Mike Bloomberg’s debate performance tonight was perhaps the worst in the history of debates, and there have been some really bad ones,” Mr Trump tweeted.
Mini Mike Bloomberg’s debate performance tonight was perhaps the worst in the history of debates, and there have been some really bad ones. He was stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent. If this doesn’t knock him out of the race, nothing will. Not so easy to do what I did!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020
“He was stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent. If this doesn’t knock him out of the race, nothing will. Not so easy to do what I did!” he added.
Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ads for his presidential run, made his debut on the debate stage ahead of Nevada’s party caucuses on Saturday.
Democrat rival Senator Elizabeth Warren led the pile on of Mr Bloomberg making him visibly squirm and roll his eyes in frustration.
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against, a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians,’” she said. “And, no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”
At a campaign rally in Phoenix last night, Mr Trump took delight in the Democrats tearing into Mr Bloomberg.
“I hear he’s getting pounded tonight – you know he’s in a debate,” Mr Trump said about the man he has dubbed “Mini Mike” because of his short stature. “He spent $500 million so far and I think he has 15 points. Crazy Bernie was at 30.”
He has gleefully derided Senator Warren as “Pocahontas” for her past claims of Native American heritage and claimed her presidential campaign had stalled.
“Fortunately she selfdestructed anyway,” Mr Trump said.“We don’t care who the hell it is,” he said. “We’re going to win.”
Mr Bloomberg, a latecomer to the Democratic race and former Republican New York mayor who has so far relied on his vast fortune to make a record political ad buy rather than running a traditional campaign, was slammed as “an arrogant billionaire” with a record of sexual harassment by Democrats at his first debate.
Senator Warren warned that it would be impossible to beat Mr Trump “if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of supporting racist policies like red-lining and stop and frisk”.
“I’ll support whoever the Democratic nominee is, but understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another,” she said.
It had been 11 years since Mr Bloomberg was last on a debate stage, the last time being when he was running for his third term as New York mayor, a position he held from 2002 to 2013.
Even before he is officially on the ballot for the early March, Super Tuesday vote, Mr Bloomberg – who is the world’s 12th richest person – has spent close to $A675 million ($US450 million) on his campaign, approaching the $A900 million ($US600 million) Mr Trump spent in the entire 2016 race, and is polling in the top four nationally.
He said the Democratic contest was about two questions: “Who can beat Donald Trump, and number two who can do the job if we can get to the White House?”.
“I’m spending that money to get rid of Donald Trump, the worst president we have ever had,” he said, arguing that his record as a businessman worth $A96 billion established his credentials as a manager and leader.
Mr Bloomberg has been repeatedly accused of trying buy his way into the White House and challenged on his scratchy record with women and people of colour.
Upstart candidate Pete Buttigieg, a former midwest mayor who currently holds the most delegates after battling for first place in the two first primary contests with the frontrunner socialist candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, said Democrats needed to “wake up as a party” or they risked a two way battle between “the two most polarising figures on this stage”.
He also took a shot at the loose politics of both Mr Bloomberg – who was a Republican mayor of New York – and Mr Sanders, who is a registered independent.
“Let’s put forward somebody who’s actually a Democrat,” he said to cheers.
“We shouldn’t have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and another candidate who wants to buy this party out.”
Mr Sanders, who has taken a commanding lead in national polling with a 12 point lead averaged across all polls, said he was the best candidate to beat Mr Trump.
“In order to beat Donald Trump we are going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the US,” Mr Sanders said.
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He said Mr Bloomberg’s record of the controversial “stop and frisk” regime in New York, which unfairly targeted black and Hispanic people, would not encourage more participation.
“That is not away you are going to grow voter turnout,” he said.
Mr Bloomberg said Mr Sanders’ core election promise to throw out private health insurance for free government healthcare could not win the ballot.
“I don’t think there’s any chance of the senator beating Donald Trump,” Mr Bloomberg said.
“You don’t start out by saying I’ve got 160 million people, I am going to take away the insurance system that they love.”
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