On Tuesday next week, Roger Stone was due to begin serving his prison sentence. Now the president has dropped the sentence.
It informs the White House the night before Saturday.
– Roger Stone has already suffered enough. He was treated unfairly. Roger Stone is now a free man, it said in a statement from the presidential residence.
In November, Stone was found guilty of lying to Congress and obstructing Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
In February, Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison.
– He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, to defend the president. He was prosecuted for covering the president, federal judge Amy Berman Jackson said at the sentencing hearing, according to Reuters.
Roger Stone had tried to hide the fact that he acted as an intermediary in relation to WikiLeaks and Russia in the election year 2016. Here, WikiLeaks published material about the Democratic Party, which Russia, according to the American intelligence services, had hacked into.
It was material that was to hurt the party’s presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, in the showdown against Trump to become US president.
Donald Trump has continuously interfered in the U.S. judiciary’s handling of the case against Stone, whom the president has previously described as a “very good person.”
Among other things, Trump has accused the female head of the jury, who found Stone guilty, of being biased.
And in connection with the February sentencing, Trump stated that he was closely following the case.
“I follow this very closely, and I want it to go all the way to the end, because Roger has a very good chance of being acquitted in my opinion,” Trump said.
At the time, it was buzzing with rumors that Trump would use his power to ensure the soon-to-be 68-year-old Roger Stone would not spend more years in a state prison. It is now a reality.
The White House announcement came just hours after a federal judge rejected a request by Roger Stone to postpone serving his sentence, according to NBC News.
When Trump was asked earlier Friday whether he was considering intervening in the case, the answer was “I want to look into it,” writes NBC News.
Source: jyllands-posten.dk
