Roger Stone: Trump friend and ally sentenced to 40 months in prison over obstructing Russia investigation

President shared video clip on Twitter calling for him to pardon his onetime political adviser

Roger Stone, a long-time friend of and political adviser to Donald Trump, was sentenced to just over three years in prison for lying to congress and obstructing a federal investigation.

Federal authorities zeroed in on Mr Stone during former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian election meddling investigation. Those investigators focused on the long-time Republican political operative’s contacts with a Russian hacker and possible exchanges he had with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose organisation released reams of Democratic National Committee emails that analysts said likely aided Mr Trump’s successful 2016 White House bid.

The Justice Department initially had planned to recommend a nine-year sentence, but attorney general William Barr stepped in to suggest to Judge Amy Berman Jackson an alternative with options for shorter prison time. That came after the president called a nearly decade-long sentence a “miscarriage of justice”, prompting Mr Barr to publicly rebuke the president weighing in on Justice Department business in a television interview – which Mr Trump soon defied with more DOJ-themed tweets.

The judge told Mr Stone’s camp and federal prosecutors that a sentence of seven or nine years would be too harsh, but called a sentence of simply probation “insufficient”. She also said Mr Stone was convicted of “covering up for the president”, according to accounts from inside the courtroom, potentially creating difficult optics for a presidential pardon – in an election year in which the incumbent is on the ballot, at least. And she appeared to rebuke Mr Trump, without naming him, saying this: “The court cannot be influenced by those comments,” she said, dubbing them “inappropriate”.

Those comments did not stop the president from tweeting during the sentencing hearing. In one, he wrote: “‘They say Roger Stone lied to congress.’ @CNN OH, I see, but so did Comey (and he also leaked classified information, for which almost everyone, other than Crooked Hillary Clinton, goes to jail for a long time), and so did Andy McCabe, who also lied to the FBI! FAIRNESS?”

Mr Stone’s legal counsel has requested a new trial after the president suggested he did not receive a fair one.

Four federal prosecutors left the case following Mr Trump’s “miscarriage of justice” tweet, a highly unusual move that prompted howls from Democrats and legal experts about Mr Trump abusing his office and shredding long-sacrosanct norms following his Senate acquittal.

Though Judge Berman Jackson opted to move ahead with the sentencing, she is reviewing whether or not to grant his lawyers’ calls for a new trial.

They made the request after the president himself weighed in on behalf of his old friend, alleging Mr Stone failed to be judged by an objective jury.

“Now it looks like the fore person in the jury, in the Roger Stone case, had significant bias. Add that to everything else, and this is not looking good for the ‘Justice’ Department’,” Mr Trump tweeted on 13 February.

Mr Trump expanded on his views on Tuesday during a tarmac press gaggle before his West Coast campaign swing.

“I think it was a very, very rough thing that happened to Roger Stone,” he said, before floating what some took as a possible pardon for Mr Stone and one of his former national security advisers.

“And you look at all of these other people, and then you look at what happened to [convicted] General [Michael] Flynn, a highly respected man,” the president said. “I mean, his life has been destroyed. If you’re looking at Roger Stone for a tweet and some other things. You take a look at what’s happening to these people. Somebody has to stick up for the people.”

It was Mr Mueller who indicted Mr Stone during his high-profile investigation of Russia’s 2016 interference and all things Trump. In a filing about that indictment, Mr Mueller referred to Mr Stone’s interactions with “Organisation 1”, which is assumed to be Wikileaks.

The former special counsel told a court that that entity had “posted documents stolen by others”, adding the unnamed organisation also “released tens of thousands of documents stolen” from the Democratic National Committee and others, including John Podesta, who in 2016 was the campaign chairman for then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Ironically, the president is slated to give the commencement address at “Hope for Prisoners” in Las Vegas, an organisation that helps prisoners transition from incarceration back into civilian life.

According to tweets from those inside the courtroom, Ms Berman Jackson appeared during the proceedings to side with the new team of federal prosecutors, who were back on Thursday to ask for a sentence of no less than seven years and up to nine years.

Mr Stone’s legal team noted at 67, he is unlikely to repeat any untoward behaviour, while contending he cares about animals, soon will become a great-grandfather and helps former professional football players with brain injuries.

But Ms Berman Jackson, in a lengthy statement prior to handing down her sentence, repeatedly criticised Mr Stone, saying at one point: “He used the tools of social media to achieve the broadest dissemination possible. It wasn’t accidental, he had a staff that helped him do it.”