Fox Business host Lou Dobbs gave a scathing rebuke of the U.S. justice system in its treatment of Roger Stone, a former Trump adviser and self-described “dirty trickster.”
On Friday, Stone appeared on Lou Dobbs Tonight to discuss Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s decision, the federal judge overseeing his case, to have the former Trump aide report to prison after being found guilty of lying to Congress and witness tampering in November.
“At this juncture, Lou, only either a decision to delay to Sept. 3, as I have requested, so that the COVID-19 situation is clarified, or an act of clemency by the president will prevent my incarceration next Tuesday,” Stone told Dobbs.
Jackson did not grant Stone’s requested September delay but gave the former Trump aide an additional 14 days, an extension to July 14, before being required to report to prison.
“This is Soviet-era justice. It’s Soviet-style justice. The idea that an appeal would require 12 months, that you and your family could have been tortured throughout all of this over what is everyone acknowledges a — an absolutely ridiculous charge,” Dobbs said, responding to Stone’s claim that it could take a year for him to be exonerated in a new trial.
Stone’s lawyers alleged one of the members of the jury in his case, Tomeka Hart, was not an impartial juror due to her past partisan activity. Hart, who was a former Democratic congressional candidate and a program officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, repeatedly shared anti-Trump posts on social media.
Stone was arrested in January 2019 and was later found guilty 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 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 two years of supervised release when he gets out.
President Trump has decried Stone’s sentencing as a “miscarriage of justice” in the past but has thus far refused to grant clemency for him.
