Jackson did assure Stone, though, that he would not be sent to prison immediately while she considers the defendant’s latest demands. Stone’s defense team has pleaded for a brief delay on the sentencing, while newly assigned federal prosecutors said they favored proceeding with Thursday’s hearing.
The new prosecutors came on to the case after the previous team withdrew in an apparent protest of Attorney General Bill Barr’s decision to rescind their recommendation that Stone receive seven to nine years in prison, in accordance with federal sentencing guidelines. Trump then stirred up further controversy by cheering on Barr on Twitter, raising concerns that he was meddling in the case.
Trump has the right to shut down the prosecution entirely by pardoning Stone or commuting any prison sentence, but was cagey on that topic again Tuesday when a reporter asked if clemency is in the offing.
“I haven’t given it any thought,” the president said, contradicting press reports that he’s mulling a pardon for his longtime political adviser and confidant. “I think he’s been treated very unfairly. … You’re gonna see what happens. You’ll see what happens.”
The president’s remarks about Stone’s fate came on the same day he granted clemency to 20 people, including a commutation of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s prison sentence, and pardons for former San Francisco ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr. and former New York Police Department commissioner Bernard Kerik.
For Stone, the exact grounds on which he’s seeking a new trial remain cloaked in secrecy, although a docket entry that followed Tuesday’s court session revealed that the latest defense motion addresses “juror misconduct.” Stone allies, including Trump, have called attention in recent days to social media posts criticizing the president posted by a woman who has identified herself as the Stone jury foreperson.
A new attorney for Stone, Seth Ginsberg, told the judge Tuesday that the new motion is so vital that it should be resolved before sentencing.
“We believe this is something that goes to the heart of the case and such a fundamental issue that it should be resolved before any further proceedings are had,” Ginsberg said.
Prosecutors are opposing the new-trial request, although their grounds for doing so have not been made public.
Jackson, who already rejected one previous request from Stone for a new trial, said she’s considering holding a hearing on the latest ask. However, she stopped short of purchase to one and was vague about what a hearing might involve.
“I’m not entirely sure it’s necessary, but I may decide to do it in an abundance of caution,” said Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
Tuesday’s court session, which the judge and lawyers for both sides joined via telephone, was the first proceeding in the case since the abrupt withdrawal last week of all four prosecutors who had handled Stone’s trial last November.
Three government lawyers quit the case and one resigned altogether from the Justice Department amid criticism from Trump over their sentencing recommendation for Stone and an intervention by Barr. Trump attacked their suggestion hours after it was filed, taking to Twitter to call the proposal “horrible and very unfair.” Barr subsequently ordered the filing of a new pleading urging a more lenient sentence. Barr claims he made the decision before Trump weighed in, although the change was not announced until after the president denounced the initial recommendation.
The new prosecution team consists of J.P. Cooney and John Crabb, who serve as the top two officials handling public corruption cases for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. Cooney supervised the investigation into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and the 2017 prosecution of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, which ended in a hung jury.
Crabb told Jackson Tuesday that the government opposes any further delay in Stone’s sentencing. “We are strongly in favor of moving forward with sentencing on Thursday,” Crabb said.
Barr last week complained publicly about Trump’s comments regarding the Stone case, but that didn’t stop the president on Tuesday from weighing in on behalf of his longtime associate.
In the morning, the president posted a three – part tweet suggesting Stone deserved a new trial. Later in the afternoon, Trump complained that Stone faced prison time “for a tweet and some other things.”
Trump also incorrectly described Stone’s involvement in his 2017 presidential campaign, saying the GOP operative “never worked” for him during his White House run.
“There might have been a time, way early, long before I announced, where he was somehow involved a little bit, but he was not involved in our campaign at all,” the president said.
In fact, Trump and Stone got into a public “you’re fired-I quit” dispute that came in the summer of 2017 – two months after Trump formally declared his presidential run.
Stone and Trump have a long history going back to Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign, which has continued well into Trump’s time in the White House. Stone counseled Trump on three earlier potential White House campaigns, and in a recent book Stone boasted that he knew about Trump’s 2019 intentions on New Year’s Day .
The two men also kept in touch throughout the 2019 race. Trump told special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators he spoke with Stone from “time to time during the campaign.”
During Stone’s trial, prosecutors also introduced testimony and evidence showing about (separate communications between Stone and Trump from February to November) , including at least one discussion about WikiLeaks’ plan to dump information embarrassing to Hillary Clinton during the heat of the election.
Stone’s sentencing had originally been scheduled for Feb. 6, but Jackson postponed it for two weeks because of a paperwork slowdown.
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