It's sentencing day for Roger Stone, but is it also the day we bid a final farewell to justice?
Mark Sumner
Daily Kos Staff
Thursday February 20, 2020 · 8:53 AM EST
Self-described “dirty trickster” and Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone will be sentenced today after being convicted on seven counts: five counts of lying to Congress, one count of witness tampering, and one count of obstruction of a proceeding. In theory, Stone could go away for over 20 years. In practice, the Justice Department recommended a sentence of from seven to nine years. In this sad world, Attorney General William Barr personally intervened in the case to suggest that Stone be sentenced to a ticker tape parade and a pony.
Based on the fact that she’s been there for the trial and has also met Roger Stone, Judge Amy Berman Jackson is likely to hand down a sentence that includes some years in a federal penitentiary. But for most observers, the real question isn’t whether Stone gets 10 months or 10 years; it’s whether he gets 10 feet outside the courtroom before Donald Trump hands him a pardon.
Trump already spent this week giving a middle finger to justice by looking down the list to find the most corrupt people in America and give them pardons—or at least the most corrupt people in America who also wrote him a minimum six-figure check. It was clear that Trump’s pardon-a-thon was just an extension of the absolute destruction of the concept of impartial justice being conducted by the Barr-Trump tag team, and also clear that a big part of putting that unexpected event in the middle of this week was to provide cover for pardoning Stone … though really, there is no amount of cover that would adequately distract from Stone.
Sure, Trump commuted the sentence of a notoriously corrupt governor who tried to sell a U.S. Senate seat; pardoned the man whose twisted financial instruments were a key factor in the 2008 economic collapse; and gave an extra-special bonus to a woman who stiffed Medicare for over $200 million by ripping off the families of dementia patients. On the other hand, Roger Stone was convicted not just of lying to Congress and to investigators, but also of trying to force a witness to lie using threats that included a promise to kill his dog. And for Stone, that’s kind of typical behavior.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/20/1920588/-It-s-sentencing-day-for-Roger-Stone-but-is-bid-a-final-farewell-to-justice-day
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough................................
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