VietPress USA (July 10 2020):  According to Wikipedia, "Roger Jason Stone (born Roger Joseph Stone Jr.; August 27, 1952) is an American conservative political consultant and lobbyist. In November 2019, subsequent to the Mueller Report and Special Counsel investigation, he was convicted on seven counts, including witness tampering and lying to investigators. On February 20, 2020, he was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison. The sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump on July 10, 2020.

Since the 1970s, Stone worked on the campaigns of Republican politicians Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, and Donald Trump. In addition to frequently serving as a campaign adviser, Stone was previously a political lobbyist. In 1980, he co-founded a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm with Paul Manafort and Charles R. Black Jr. The firm recruited Peter G. Kelly and was renamed Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly in 1984. During the 1980s, BMSK became a top lobbying firm by leveraging its White House connections to attract high-paying clients including U.S. corporations and trade associations, as well as foreign governments. By 1990, it was one of the leading lobbyists for American companies and foreign organizations.

A longtime friend of Donald Trump, Stone has been variously described as a "self-proclaimed dirty trickster", a "renowned infighter", a "seasoned practitioner of hard-edged politics", a "mendacious windbag", a "veteran Republican strategist", and a political fixer. Over the course of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, Stone promoted a number of falsehoods and conspiracy theories. He has described his political modus operandi as "Attack, attack, attack – never defend" and "Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack." Stone first suggested Trump run for president in early 1998 while he was Trump's casino business lobbyist in Washington. The Netflix documentary film Get Me Roger Stone focuses on Stone's past and his role in Trump's presidential campaign.^[31]

Stone officially left the Trump campaign on August 8, 2015; however, two associates of Stone have said he collaborated with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential campaign to discredit Hillary Clinton. Stone and Assange have denied these claims. Nearly three-dozen search warrants were unsealed in April 2020 which revealed a web of contacts between Stone, Assange, and other key 2016 Russian interference figures, and that Stone orchestrated hundreds of fake Facebook accounts and bloggers to run a political influence scheme on social media. On January 25, 2019, Stone was arrested at his Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home in connection with Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation and charged in an indictment with witness tampering, obstructing an official proceeding, and five counts of making false statements. Stone was convicted on all seven felony counts in November 2019 and was sentenced to 40 months in prison. On July 10, 2020, days before he was scheduled to report to federal prison, Trump commuted Stone's sentence."

Stone was sentenced in February after he was convicted on charges stemming from Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Stone drew the attention of the FBI because of his communications with Guccifer 2.0, a Russian hacker who released stolen Democratic National Committee emails via Wikileaks.

Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence before three-year prison term was to begin

President Trump on Friday commuted the three-year prison sentence for Republican operative Roger Stone, who was to report to a federal prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress.

By granting Stone clemency, rather than a full pardon, Trump ensures that his longtime friend will remain out of prison, though his criminal record will remain.

In a statement released Friday night, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called Stone’s prison sentence “unjust.”

“Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” McEnany said in the statement.

Hours before Trump announced his decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Stone’s request to stay his prison sentence. Citing the risk of being infected by COVID-19 while behind bars at a federal prison in Jesup, Ga., Stone had asked the court to delay his sentence, but the court ruled he hadn’t shown that that risk was sufficient.

Stone was sentenced in February after he was convicted on charges stemming from Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Stone drew the attention of the FBI because of his communications with Guccifer 2.0, a Russian hacker who released stolen Democratic National Committee emails via Wikileaks.

“Mr. Stone was charged by the same prosecutors from the Mueller Investigation tasked with finding evidence of collusion with Russia,” McEnany said in her statement. “Because no evidence exists, however, they could not charge him for any collusion-related crime. Instead they charged him for his conduct during their investigation.”

A self-described “dirty trickster” who sports a large tattoo of former President Richard Nixon on his back, Stone, 67, will be spared further time behind bars.

Either a pardon or clemency for Stone was widely expected. Asked about it Friday morning, the president replied: “I’ll be looking at it. I think Roger Stone was very unfairly treated, as for many people.”

During his three-and-a-half years in office, Trump has pardoned a number of conservative political figures and supporters. They include former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, former Dick Cheney aide Lewis Libby, right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza, conservative media scion Conrad Black, junk bond king Michael Milken and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.

Kerik celebrated the commutation of Stone’s sentence on social media on Friday even before it was officially announced.

In an interview with Fox News this week, Stone expressed confidence that Trump would spare him further time in prison.

“The president, who I’ve known for 40 years, has an incredible sense of fairness,” Stone said.

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