ROGER STONE COMMUTATION ISSUED AFTER COURT DENIES EMERGENCY MOTION TO DELAY PRISON DATE DUE TO COVID CRISIS DESPITE RELEASE OF MICHAEL AVENATTI AND CONVICTED SEX OFFENDERS
Washington, DC
|
July 12, 2020 10:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time
President Trump issued a commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence Friday shortly after the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an emergency motion to delay Stone’s prison report date scheduled for July 14 to September 3.
In his motion, Mr. Stone, age 67, cited his medical condition and the 20 positive cases of Covid-19 among prisoners and staff at the prison facility in Jesup, GA, where only 45 were tested. Stone also cited numerous cases where prisoners were either released early from prison or whose entry were delayed because of the pandemic, including attorney Michael Avenatti, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen. Two sex offenders and child pornographers were also released from prison.
“President Trump waited until the court proceedings were exhausted to issue the commutation after seeing that Stone was being treated differently from others and citing the corrupt Mueller investigation,” said Paul Kamenar, attorney for the National Legal & Policy Center (NLPC) who represented Andrew Miller, a former Roger Stone aide, challenging the constitutionality of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment.
“The ensuing media criticism conveniently forgets that Bill Clinton commuted the sentence of domestic terrorist Susan Rosenberg who handles fundraising for Black Lives Matter and pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich whose wife gave $450K to build the Clinton Library,” added Peter Flaherty, NLPC Chairman.
Ethics watchdog NLPC and Mr. Miller recently filed a misconduct complaint against Mueller prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky in the Stone case with the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility for abusing the grand jury and misleading the court regarding Mr. Miller’s testimony. A copy of that complaint is available at http://www.nlpc.org
###