The Justice Department supports Roger Stone being sent to prison next week, prosecutors said in a court filing.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors asked a federal appeals court to deny Stone’s bid to postpone his prison sentence until September.
Stone, a longtime Republican operative and ally of President Trump, had asked the appeals court to delay his surrender date until Sept. 3. His lawyers cited “medically documented life-threatening health risks” that Stone would face if incarcerated during the coronavirus pandemic.
Prosecutors said U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson made the right call in denying Stone’s request for a 60-day extension to his surrender date. Stone is expected to report to a Georgia prison on Tuesday after Jackson postponed his prison sentence by two weeks in late June.
The DOJ said the two-week delay by Jackson, who presided over Stone’s trial, was a “reasonable exercise of that court’s discretion based on the totality of the factual and legal circumstances.”
“Accordingly, the government supports the district court’s ruling, and this Court should affirm it,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
Stone appealed his conviction and 40-month prison sentence in April, months after he was found guilty of making false statements, witness tampering, and obstructing a congressional investigation.
“I guess if I had to make an appeal, it would be that on humanitarian grounds, as an act of mercy, as well as of justice, I would pray that the president uses his incredible powers of clemency,” Stone told RealClearPolitics last week.
Trump has teased a possible pardon for Stone but has yet to grant his longtime confidant one.
“It was a disgraceful situation that was allowed to take place. With that, you will see what I’m going to do,” Trump told RealClearPolitics in an interview this week.
