Stone Clemency Also Scraps Supervised Release, $20,000 Fine (1)

President Donald Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s 40-month prison term for lying to Congress and tampering with a witness during the Russia probe also scraps the two years of supervised release and $20,000 fine that were part of his sentence.

A copy of Trump’s signed two-page executive grant of clemency was posted to Stone’s criminal docket on Monday after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered prosecutors to explain the full scope of the commutation handed to the president’s longtime friend and political booster on Friday.

Roger Stone

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

The controversial act of clemency fell short of a full pardon that would have required an admission of guilt from Stone and would have forced him to abandon his ongoing appeal of his conviction last year by a Washington jury.

“Roger J. Stone’s felony convictions -- for obstructing the United States Congress, making false statements, and tampering with a witness -- still stand,” Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for Washington, said in the court filing.

Stone said in a text message on Monday that he’s pleased with the commutation, particularly in light of the coronavirus outbreak at the federal facility in rural Georgia where he’d been due to surrender on Tuesday after his request for a two-month delay was denied.

“I am grateful for the full commutation that the president gave me in an act of both justice and mercy, in which the president recognized that I did not receive a fair trial, as well as recognizing the eminent danger of sending me -- at age 67 and with a history of asthma -- to a correctional facility that now has 60 confirmed cases of Covid-19 virus,” he said.

Read More: Stone’s Ongoing Appeal Pits Him Against Justice Department

(Updates with comment from Stone)

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Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

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Anthony Lin, Peter Jeffrey

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