Roger Stone, a longtime friend and associate of President Trump, is dropping the appeal of his criminal conviction, about a month after the president commuted his sentence.
Stone, 67, filed a sworn statement to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Monday night, announcing that he was dropping the appeal. Stone explained in a post on his website that he “reluctantly decided to dismiss the appeal of what I believe to be a wrongful conviction in a trial tainted by judicial bias, egregious and blatant juror bias and misconduct and prosecutorial misconduct.”
Before President Trump commuted Stone’s sentence, he was 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 count for attempting to intimidate a possible congressional witness, radio host Randy Credico.
He was facing a three-year prison sentence before Trump intervened. Because he was not pardoned, he still keeps his criminal record, which is what he was hoping to have overturned through the now-defunct appeal.
“It is time for me to move on with my life with my family, friends, and supporters,” he added in the post on his website. “I regret not going forward with the appeal to fully expose all that happened, with the hope that by doing so, I could help prevent it from happening to anyone else ever again; but I had to decide based on what is best for me and my family.”
Stone also noted that his lawyers told him his chances of overturning the conviction were “slim.”
