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| Roger Stone |
A jury convicted U.S. President Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone on Friday on all charges, finding the long-time Republican operative on seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering.
Before the verdict was announced, Stone, 67, arrived at the courthouse attired in a pinstripe suit, blue tie with white dots, white handkerchief in his pocket, arm in arm with his wife, sunglasses in one hand, a small red copy of the Bible in the other and a smile on his face. When the verdict was read, Stone faced the jury of nine women and three men, and showed no outward signs of emotion as he was pronounced guilty.
Stone, a longtime Republican political operative charged with obstructing justice, witness tampering and lying to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
“So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come,” Trump wrote on Twitter after the verdict. Trump then asked why it was not a series of his adversaries including his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton and “even Mueller himself? Didn’t they lie?”
“A double standard like never seen before in the history of our Country?” Trump added.
The sentencing date was set for Feb. 6. Stone faces the potential of numerous years in prison.
Stone and his lawyers had no immediate comment.
Prosecutors accused Stone of telling lawmakers five different lies related to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, which in 2016 disclosed a series of damaging emails about Democrat Clinton that U.S. intelligence officials determined had been stolen by Russian hackers.
After the judge set Stone’s sentencing date, prosecutor Jonathan Kravis asked the judge to detain Stone pending sentencing, saying that the night before Alex Jones from the website Infowars claimed Stone had sent him a message. Stone was under a gag order from the judge not to speak about the case. The request was denied.
WikiLeaks made public a private Twitter exchange between itself and Stone in which the website distanced itself from Stone, saying “false claims of association are being used by the democrats to undermine the impact of our publications.”
REUTERS
