Trump bemoans ‘disgraceful situation’ after Roger Stone denied new trial

President Trump late Friday denounced a judge’s decision to deny Roger Stone a new trial after lawyers for the longtime GOP operative and former Trump campaign adviser raised concerns about one juror’s political leanings.

“This is a disgraceful situation!” Trump wrote on Twitter, sharing a tweet blasting the decision and calling for a pardon for Stone.

This is a disgraceful situation! https://t.co/s2qZSrGw6U

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020

Stone was found guilty in 2019 of obstructing a congressional probe into Russia’s election interference and of witness tampering. He was sentenced in February to more than three years in prison but has vociferously maintained his innocence.

His lawyers had asked for a new trial after raising concerns about one juror’s political leanings, prompting Trump to allege that the trial had been rigged against his former campaign adviser.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, ruled this week that Stone’s lawyers did not convincingly argue that any bias by the juror in question influenced the verdict.

“The assumption underlying the motion – that one can infer from the juror’s opinions about the President that she could not fairly consider the evidence against the defendant – is not supported by any facts or data and it is contrary to controlling legal precedent,” Jackson wrote. “The motion is a tower of indignation, but at the end of the day, there is little of substance holding it up.”

In his first television interview since the lifting of a 16-month gag order, Stone told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on Friday night that his prison sentence amounts to a “death sentence.” 

“So at this point, the judge has ordered me to surrender in two weeks and at 67 years old with some underlying health problems, including a history of asthma, I believe with the coronavirus it is essentially a death sentence,” he said, adding that he is hoping for a pardon from Trump.