Prosecutors seek 7 to 9 years in prison for Roger Stone
Federal prosecutors are urging that longtime Donald Trump adviser and Republican political provocateur Roger Stone be sent to prison for about seven to nine years for his conviction on charges of lying and witness tampering during investigations of ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The stern recommendation is starkly at odds with a suggestion from Stone's defense team that he should be sentenced to probation — and no jail time — in the case.
Following a weeklong trial last November, a Washington jury found Stone guilty on all seven felony counts he faced: five of making false statements to Congress, one of obstruction of Congress, and one of witness tampering with both the House Intelligence Committee inquiry and special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.
In a sentencing filing Monday, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington argued that Stone's conduct was exceptionally sinister because of the importance of those investigations and the danger of overseas influence on U.S. elections.
"Foreign election interference is the 'most deadly adversar[y] of republican government,'” prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington wrote, quoting Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Paper No. 68. "Investigations into election interference concern our national security, the integrity of our democratic processes, and the enforcement of our nation’s criminal laws. These are issues of paramount concern to every citizen of the United States. Obstructing such critical investigations thus strikes at the very heart of our American democracy."
The argument was strikingly similar — in some cases borrowing from the exact passages from the same Constitution-era text — as that lodged by the House's prosecutors during Trump's impeachment trial. "Alexander Hamilton cautioned that the 'most deadly adversaries of republican government may come 'chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils,'" the House members argued in their trial brief.
Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz countered this argument at the time, suggesting a president may use his power to coerce political support from a foreign government, so long as he believes his reelection is in the national interest. Democrats and some Republicans reacted with astonishment at the argument, suggesting it would sanction a virtually limitless exercise of presidential power. DOJ's mirroring of the argument Democrats used regarding election interference is another example in which the Trump Justice Department at times appeared to champion different positions than the Trump's trial team.
Trump was acquitted last week by the Senate on charges that he solicited Ukraine's interference in the 2020 election and sought to obstruct the congressional investigation into that alleged scheme. Early Tuesday morning, he weighed in on the sentencing recommendation for his convicted political adviser.
"This is a horrible and very unfair situation," Trump tweeted. "The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"
The president may well see prosecutors' request for a lengthy sentence for Stone as an indication that the justice system is treating Trump allies unfairly while allowing his political opponents to escape without consequences.
“So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come," Trump tweeted back in November, minutes after the jury's verdicts were read. "Well, what about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all of the others, including even Mueller himself? Didn’t they lie?”
While prosecutors tied the gravity of Stone's crimes to their impact on the electoral system, the bulk of the prison time authorities are calling for is a product of the prosecution's decision to treat hostile and vulgar messages Stone sent to longtime associate Randy Credico as genuine threats of violence, or at least as having the potential to stir up violence against Credico or others.
Prosecutors pointed, in particular, to a message Stone sent to Credico after he indicated plans to cooperate with the House committee. "Prepare to die, cocksucker," Stone wrote. In another instance, Stone told Credico, who has a therapy dog, that he would "take that dog away from you."
Stone said during the trial his comments were in jest and part of the brash banter often exchanged between the two men, whose views are usually at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Prosecutors insisted that the barbed remarks mean Stone deserves between four and five years longer under federal sentencing guidelines than in cases involving witness tampering efforts that involve no physical threats.
"It is the threat itself, not the likelihood of carrying out the threat, that triggers the enhancement," prosecutors wrote. "Endeavoring to tamper with a witness can involve a wide range of conduct. This enhancement recognizes that when the conduct involves threats of injury or property damage, rather than simple persuasion for example, the base offense level does not accurately capture the seriousness of the crime. To apply the enhancement, there is no 'additional ‘seriousness’ requirement beyond the fact of a violent threat.'"
Prosecutors acknowledged that Credico — a liberal New York city talk show host, comedian and activist — recently wrote to the court saying he did not think Stone was threatening him physically.
Credico's letter urged that Stone get probation. However, prosecutors also noted that during the trial, Credico said he was concerned about Stone's statements because they could encourage others to get violent.
Defense lawyers, who weighed in with U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson late Monday night, vigorously disputed the notion that Stone's statements to Credico were actual threats to do anything. They noted that at the trial Credico called Stone's comments "hyperbole" and said Stone "loves all dogs," so he could not have actually intended to harm Credico's service dog, a tiny Coton de Tulear who's almost constantly at his side.
"Stone’s indecorous conversations with Randy Credico were many things, but here, in the circumstances of this nearly 20-year relationship between eccentric men, where crude language was the norm, 'prepare to die cocksucker' and conversations of similar ilk, were not threats of physical harm, 'serious acts' used as a means of intimidation, or 'the more serious forms of obstruction' contemplated by the Guidelines," Stone's lawyers wrote.
"Stone and Credico engaged in an ongoing dialogue in which each used harsh language as a matter of course and it was understood between them that, as Credico put it, it was 'all bark and no bite.'"
Stone, 67, faces a maximum of 50 years in prison at the sentencing, which Jackson has set for Feb. 20.
Prosecutors say federal sentencing guidelines urge between 87 to 108 months in prison for Stone. The defense disputes several aspects of that calculation and argues that the guidelines call for just 15 to 21 months. Judges have the right to sentence above or below the guidelines, but are required to calculate the recommended sentence and take it into account.
Stone's defense also submitted a collection of letters from his wife and acquaintances in the political sphere and elsewhere.
"I can't tell you that Roger is a saint — he pushes everything to the limit even with you," Stone's wife Nydia wrote, alluding to Stone's run-ins with the judge over her gag orders and perhaps to an Instagram post he sent during the trial that included a picture of Jackson next to what appeared to be crosshairs. She also proclaimed her husband "loyal, kind, loving, considerate, generous and good-natured," as well deeply committed to Trump's re-election.
Among others asking for leniency for Stone were Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf and former New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. Stone's supporters saluted him as an early backer of gay rights and marriage equality, an opponent of animal testing and a strong advocate for the easing of New York state's tough Rockefeller drug laws.
Quint Forgey contributed to this report.
