Roger Stone Says He Was ‘Not Willing To Lie’ About Donald Trump For Sentencing Leniency
During an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday, Roger Stone claimed prosecutor Jeannie Rhee offered him sentencing leniency to provide incriminating information on Donald Trump, who ultimately commuted the Republican operative’s sentence, The Daily Caller reported.
“She made it very clear to one of my lawyers after a hearing, she asked to see them privately, that if I would really remember certain phone conversations I had with candidate Trump, if I would come clean, if I would confess, that they might be willing to, you know, recommend leniency to the judge perhaps I wouldn’t even serve any jail time,” Stone said.
“I didn’t have to think about it very long. I said absolutely not. There was no circumstance under which I would bear false witness against the president. I was just not willing to lie.”
Stone was set to serve 40 months in prison before Trump commuted his sentence on Friday. The GOP operative was convicted of witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and lying to Congress as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election.
Stone was accused of lying when he denied speaking to Trump and members of his 2016 presidential campaign about WikiLeaks, which released hacked emails stemming from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. According to Stone, prosecutors wanted him to speak of the alleged phone calls, which he claimed were fabricated by Michael Cohen and Rick Gates as part of their plea bargains.
In an op-ed for The New York Times published on Tuesday, former Mueller team member Andrew Weissmann argued that Stone could still face a grand jury. However, he suggested that Trump’s Department of Justice may impede efforts to press Stone on his purported lies further.
Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s sentence received pushback from many political figures. Notably, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney — the only Republican to vote to remove Trump from office during the Senate impeachment trial — said the decision was an example of historic corruption. He also claimed that Stone’s lies were intended to shield the president from the repercussions of his actions. Along with Romney, many Democrats decried the commutation and accused Trump of brazen corruption.
As reported by Global News, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson demanded on Monday that more information about the president’s decision be released. In particular, she called for clarity on whether the clemency solely covers Stone’s prison sentence or includes the two-year supervised release period.
