A longtime friend and confidant of convicted Roger Stone called for President Trump to pardon the GOP operative shortly after the presiding judge in the case sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison.
Kristin Davis, dubbed the “Manhattan Madam” in tabloids for running a high-end prostitution ring in New York City, condemned the ruling from Judge Amy Berman Jackson, pointing out that Stone’s motion for a new trial following allegations of a biased jury forewoman has not yet received a ruling.
“It’s rather odd to me to pronounce sentence before we have ascertained the integrity of the trial. There is serious, undisputed juror misconduct here in anti-Trump, anti-Republican, and anti-Stone tweets, and if Judge Jackson does not recognize it, it will be the solid grounds for an appeal,” Davis said in a statement to NBC reporter Peter Alexander. “By moving forward with sentencing and continuing to silence Stone, it seems very clear that the truth doesn’t matter. It falls on President Trump to use the power of a pardon as the final means of checks and balances to right this horrible wrong.”
In announcing the prison sentence of three years and four months on Thursday, Jackson said Stone was not “prosecuted, as some complained, for standing up for the president” but rather that “he was prosecuted for covering up for the president.”
Stone, a self-described “dirty trickster” and longtime confidant to Trump, was swept up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and was arrested last January. He was found guilty in November on five separate counts of lying to the House Intelligence Committee during its investigation into Russian interference about his alleged outreach to WikiLeaks, one count that he “corruptly influenced, obstructed, and impeded” the congressional investigation, and another for attempting to “corruptly persuade” the congressional testimony of radio host Randy Credico.
Jackson sentenced Stone to 40 months for obstruction of justice, 18 months for witness tampering, and 12 months for the other five counts — to be served concurrently.
Trump has hinted that he may pardon Stone but has not said so directly. Early Thursday morning, he shared a Wednesday clip from Tucker Carlson’s show, during which the Fox News host claimed that “like the Russia collusion fantasy itself, Stone’s prosecution was wholly political” and that “President Trump could end this travesty in an instant with a pardon.”
“What has happened to Roger Stone should never happen to anyone in our Country again,” Trump tweeted.
The Justice Department defended its work in the case in the face of backlash from Trump allies.
“The DOJ and the U.S. attorney’s office is committed to enforcing the law without fear, favor, or political influence,” DOJ prosecutor John Crabb said Thursday. “The prosecution was and is righteous.”
“The Stone case was prosecuted while I was attorney general — and I supported it,” Attorney General William Barr said last week. “I thought that was a righteous prosecution. And I was happy that he was convicted.”
Stone’s lawyers filed a motion for a retrial last week following revelations that the jury forewoman during his trial had a social media history of anti-Trump posts, and the judge hasn’t ruled on that yet, saying earlier this week it wouldn’t be “prudent” to delay Stone’s sentencing.
“I am not passing judgment on Roger Stone as a man — that falls to a Higher Authority. It falls to me to sentence him just for the conduct he was found guilty of by a jury,” Jackson said Thursday. “Congress cared. The United States Department of Justice and the United States cared … the jurors cared … the American people cared. And I care.”
If Stone’s long-shot challenge is successful, his sentence would be tossed, and the DOJ would have to try him again. The judge already shot down a similar request.
The controversy surrounding Stone juror Tomeka Hart, a former Democratic congressional candidate, kicked into high gear when it was revealed she shared anti-Trump posts on social media, which resulted in Stone’s lawyers filing a motion for a retrial last week.
“It is my strong opinion that the forewoman of the jury, the woman who was in charge of the jury, is totally tainted,” Trump said Thursday, also claiming he wanted “to see it play out to its fullest because Roger has a very good chance of exoneration” in his opinion.
Hart tweeted about Trump dozens of times and was critical of the president and his supporters, with some comments regarding the targets of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Hart’s tweets include a few about Russian interference and allegations of Trump-Russia collusion.
“Ignoring the numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions of people in 45’s inner-circle, some Republicans are asserting that the Mueller investigation was a waste of time because he hasn’t found evidence,” Hart wrote in a March 2019 tweet, linking to a Facebook post that seems to have been deleted.
A transcript of the examination under oath of the jury pool in November shows Hart promising to make her judgment based on the facts. Stone’s lawyers did not move to strike Hart from the pool at the time.
Hart admitted to the judge that she previously sat on a federal grand jury for two years, ran for Congress, paid a fair amount of attention to politics on the news and social media, and was aware that Stone was connected to Trump’s campaign but said “absolutely not” when the judge asked if any of that would affect her ability to judge Stone fairly.
Stone will not head to prison until the judge rules on his retrial request.
