President Trump’s friend and advisor Roger Stone was sentenced to three years and 4 months for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. But he may never see the inside of a prison.
Stone walked out of the courthouse with a big smile on his face after the sentence was handed down on Thursday.
Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, said she rejected prosecutors’ demands for nine years – but not because of outside pressure.
Four prosecutors walked off the job last week after the Department of Justice and President Trump intervened, saying the nine years demanded by the prosecution was unfair.
He is out on bail as his lawyers plan to file for a retrial on the basis that the jury foreperson, Tomeka Hart, was an anti-Trump activist who often tweeted leftwing Russia collusion posts on social media.
It also emerged that Judge Berman Jackson denied a request to strike a potential juror who was an Obama-era press official with anti-Trump views.
President Trump has dropped hints that he will pardon Stone.
