Roger Stone must report to prison by the end of June, where he will become Inmate No. 19579-104.
Stone, the longtime Trump confidant and self-described “dirty trickster” who was convicted in a spinoff case from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, will begin his 40-month prison sentence on June 30, according to an order from the Bureau of Prisons, the Washington Examiner can confirm.
For safety and security reasons, the Bureau of Prisons doesn’t share an inmate’s designated institution until after the inmate has arrived.
Stone reacted on Instagram, saying that “the Bureau of Prisons has changed the date…. of my surrender to June 30 but I will NOT be quarantined for Covid-19.” The message was accompanied by the hashtags “#DeathSentence” and “#FreeRogerStone.” Stone added on Instagram that he believed a host of other figures in the Trump-Russia case, such as fired FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, “and Mueller himself” lied to Congress but were never charged. He also attacked presiding Judge Amy Berman Jackson as “deeply biased” and called the jury forewoman “corrupt.”
Stone was arrested in January 2019 and was later 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 in 2016, one count that he “corruptly obstructed” the congressional investigation, and another for attempting to intimidate a possible congressional witness, radio host Randy Credico.
Stone was sentenced to 40 months for obstruction of justice and 12 months for the other five counts to be served concurrently. Stone also received a $20,000 fine and 24 months of supervised release when he leaves prison. He has been awaiting the start of his sentence at his home in Florida for the past few months.
Stone has not been told to follow a new Bureau of Prisons directive that incoming inmates must go to a federal quarantine site first because he is surrendering voluntarily. Last week’s directive said the Bureau of Prisons “will process all newly-sentenced Bureau inmates through one of three quarantine sites” in Mississippi, California, or Oklahoma “or through a Bureau detention center/jail unit.” Stone will skip that step.
Scott Taylor, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, told the Washington Examiner that the bureau issued a new guidance in late March “that all newly admitted inmates into the BOP were screened and temperature checked by employees wearing Personal Protective Equipment … in accordance with CDC guidance” and that even if an inmate is asymptomatic, “they are placed in quarantine for a minimum of 14 days.” If symptomatic for COVID-19, the inmate “must be placed in isolation until they test negative for COVID-19 or are cleared by medical staff as meeting CDC criteria for release from isolation.” Taylor said all prisons have areas set aside for quarantining and isolation and that all symptomatic inmates are treated per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
President Trump has decried Stone’s sentencing as a “miscarriage of justice” in the past but has thus far refused to grant him a pardon.
Stone’s legal team has said it plans to try to delay his sentencing start date and has appealed his conviction.
Stone appealed his sentencing and conviction after Jackson refused his request for a new trial amid allegations of anti-Trump juror bias and the Justice Department unsealed its 33 search warrants against Stone, which showed 2017 communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Prosecutors told the court in February that they recommended Stone receive up to nine years behind bars. But after Trump tweeted that he “cannot allow this miscarriage of justice,” the Justice Department suggested a less severe sentence. The four prosecutors on the case withdrew as the department walked back the “unduly high” sentence recommendation.
Attorney General William Barr denied that the president’s tweet influenced the Justice Department’s actions, but Barr did complain that such tweets make “it impossible for me to do my job.”
“The prosecution was and is righteous,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb said during Stone’s sentencing hearing.
Two other high-profile members in Trump’s orbit who have been convicted have left prison to continue their sentences at home due to concerns over the coronavirus.
Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager who was serving a seven-year sentence for tax fraud and conspiracy, was released in mid-May to serve out the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer who was imprisoned for a host of fraud charges and for lying to Congress, was released on furlough a week later and is likely to spend the rest of his three-year sentence at home.
