Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who handled the case against longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, has ordered the Trump administration to hand over a copy of the recent commutation that the president enacted so that Stone wouldn’t have to serve a single day of his prison sentence. Specifically, Jackson wants to know whether the commutation order covers Stone’s parole sentence. If it does not, then although Stone may be able to escape spending time behind bars as part of his sentence, he may still have to be under “supervised release,” as her order references.
As CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz explained, citing fellow reporter Katelyn Polantz:
‘Judge Amy Berman Jackson wants to see Roger Stone’s commutation paperwork, after questions have arisen about whether President Trump’s clemency covers only Stone’s prison time or also his probation. US Probation Office has raised questions about the commutation’
!!! Judge Amy Berman Jackson wants to see Roger Stone's commutation paperwork, after questions have arisen about whether President Trump's clemency covers only Stone's prison time or also his probation. US Probation Office has raised questions about the commutation @kpolantz
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) July 13, 2020
Reporter Megan Mineiro, meanwhile, shared a copy of what appears to be Jackson’s order itself. Jackson has demanded a copy of the commutation order by July 14, which is Tuesday — the day on which Stone was originally slated to report to prison to begin his over three-year sentence. Jackson is the one who originally issued that sentence, following controversy after Attorney General Bill Barr intervened to lower the federal government’s sentencing recommendation for Stone.
Movement on the #RogerStone docket: judge wants to know if Trump commuting his longtime ally's sentence includes the parole sentence along with the term of incarceration. pic.twitter.com/nlpOph52qf
— Megan Mineiro (@MMineiro_CNS) July 13, 2020
Jackson, it’s worth noting, also handled one of the cases against Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. She issued a sentence of over three and a half years for Manafort — although he was recently released from custody amidst concerns about the spread of the deadly Coronavirus in prisons.
In Stone’s case, the Trump team has claimed that the only reason Stone was ever charged in the first place was some kind of animosity towards the Trump team on the part of prosecutors. There’s zero evidence for this claim — besides, Stone wasn’t convicted by prosecutors, he was convicted by a jury. Robert Mueller, who led the Russia investigation that helped spark some of Stone’s charges, stated in a recent op-ed:
‘We made every decision in Stone’s case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law and in accordance with the rule of law. The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false.’
The consistently lie-riddled Trump administration has zero place to lecture anyone about integrity.
