Free Republic

“Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday that it was “not appropriate” for President Donald Trump to be tweeting about the ongoing Roger Stone case.”

WASHINGTON - A federal judge has rejected a request by U.S. President Donald Trump ally Roger Stone for a new trial, according to a court filing released on Wednesday, a day after a Justice Department reversal over sentencing prompted prosecutors to resign from the case. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in a Feb. 5 order, said the Republican operative’s lawyers had “not presented grounds for a new trial ... or any reason to believe there has been ‘a serious miscarriage of justice.’”

President Trump has withdrawn his nomination of Jessie Liu to serve as a top Treasury Department official, Fox News has learned. The president’s move to withdraw Liu’s nomination comes just hours after four Justice Department lawyers quit following a move by senior leaders at the department to overrule the prosecutors' judgment by seeking a lesser sentence for long-time Trump ally Roger Stone after he was found guilty of lying to Congress. Liu is a former U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., who before her nomination oversaw the prosecutions of Stone and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn over charges of...

Hillary Clinton declared Tuesday that democracy is “in crisis” amid the withdrawal of prosecutors from the case against Roger Stone after senior leaders at the Justice Department (DOJ) effectively overruled the prosecutors' judgment by seeking a lesser sentence for President Trump's former adviser. Clinton, a former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, bemoaned the departure of the DOJ prosecutors on the same day of the Republican-controlled Senate’s move to block three election security-related bills. Four prosecutors withdrew from the case, and at least one resigned from the Justice Department. “The rule of law & our democracy are...

The Justice Department dispensed its recommendation of a prison sentence of seven to nine years for Roger Stone and replaced it with a more lenient request. A Tuesday evening court filing, which said the prior recommendation did "not accurately reflect the Department of Justice’s position on what would be a reasonable sentence in this matter," came after all four prosecutors in the case withdrew from their roles. “While it remains the position of the United States that a sentence of incarceration is warranted here, the government respectfully submits that the range of 87 to 108 months presented as the applicable...

The prosecution team in Roger Stone's criminal case abruptly resigned from the case on Tuesday after the Justice Department said it planned to reduce the recommended sentence for the longtime Trump associate. **SNIP** Zelinsky, who was a part of former special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russian election interference, is not resigning from the Justice Department but is leaving the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office and returning to his old job with the U.S. Attorney in Maryland. Another one of the prosecutors, Jonathan Kravis, also resigned— both from the case and his job as an assistant U.S. attorney. Kravis on...

A second Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor who recommended Roger Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison left the case Tuesday after reports that officials would seek to reduce the sentencing request. In a one-sentence filing to the court, lawyer Jonathan Kravis announced his resignation as an assistant U.S. attorney and therefore no longer represents the government in the case. Kravis's announcement came shortly after a similar withdrawal by prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky. Both attorneys were involved in providing the initial sentencing guidance, which was sharply criticized by President Trump, raising questions about potential political interference in the...

The lead prosecutor in Roger Stone's criminal case abruptly resigned from the case on Tuesday after the Justice Department said it planned to reduce the recommended sentence for the longtime Trump associate. The Justice Department was pulling back on its request to sentence Stone to seven to nine years in prison after President Donald Trump blasted the sentencing proposal as "a miscarriage of justice." “The department finds the recommendation extreme and excessive and will clarify its position later today," a senior department official confirmed to NBC News. After the reports of the imminent softer sentencing recommendation, lead prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky...

The Justice Department is preparing to change its sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone after top brass were “shocked” at the stiff prison term initially being sought, according to a senior DOJ official. Federal prosecutors had recommended that Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentence Stone to between 87 and 108 months in prison for his conviction on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering, and making false statements to Congress on charges that stemmed from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. “The Department was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation in the filing in the Stone case last night,” the official told...

White House Petition to pardon Roger Stone

Republican operative Roger Stone was found guilty on Friday of all seven counts against him, including witness tampering and making false statements. The colorful trial lasted for nearly two weeks and featured references to “The Godfather Part II,” threats of dognapping, complaints of food poisoning and a gag order. Prosecutors portrayed Stone, 67, as a serial liar who tried to bully witnesses into not cooperating with authorities. They charged Stone with making false statements, obstruction and witness tampering. The case was one of the offshoots of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and the last one referred to federal...

A federal jury has convicted longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone of lying to Congress and tampering with a witness about his efforts to learn about the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks release of hacked Democratic emails in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The jury in Roger Stone's criminal trial ended its first day of deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict on the longtime Trump associate's charges of obstruction, lying to Congress and witness tampering. One of Stone's attorneys told reporters outside the courtroom at around 5 p.m. that the proceedings would resume Friday morning. The jury had begun deliberating at around 10:30 a.m. They sent two notes to the judge in the afternoon asking about one of the counts of making false statements. The charges, brought by the former special counsel Robert Mueller in January, allege that Stone lied to the House...

When the federal judge presiding over the trial against Roger Stone referred to the government’s star witness, Randy Credico, as “difficult” on Friday, none of the members of the jury or others in the Washington, D.C., court room overheard her pointed remarks. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson made the observation during a side bar discussion with lead government attorney Aaron Zelinsky and Stone lawyer Robert Bushchel, according to a transcript of the court proceedings obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Jackson made the remark after two days of testimony that saw Credico, a comedian and longtime frenemy of Stone’s,...

When the federal judge presiding over the trial against Roger Stone referred to the government’s star witness, Randy Credico, as “difficult” on Friday, none of the members of the jury or others in the Washington, D.C., court room overheard her pointed remarks. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson made the observation during a side bar discussion with lead government attorney Aaron Zelinsky and Stone lawyer Robert Bushchel, according to a transcript of the court proceedings obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Jackson made the remark after two days of testimony that saw Credico, a comedian and longtime frenemy of Stone’s,...

Daily Reminder: Lindsey Graham Could Call in Former US Ambassador Kurt Volker to Testify and Blow Up Dem Impeachment Narrative – But He Refuses to Act… Why? (UPDATED) [Full title] ... On May 1, 2019 Lindsey Graham, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, promised investigations on how the Mueller probe started. Senator Graham made the the comments during testimony by US Attorney General Bill Barr in front of the US Senate. ... But Lindsey Graham lied.. Lindsey Graham is a fraud. Lindsey Graham has scheduled NO COMMITTEE HEARINGS on Deep State, FBI, CIA, Spygate, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Mueller,...

Whilst on a walk close to Dingwall, I came across a site that struck me as being slightly mysterious, atmospheric and with an air of neglect about it. I was immediately fascinated, and started to try and find out more about it. I established that it was an early religious site, privately owned, and asked the landowner if I could have permission to survey it. This granted, and because of the difficult access, I began to form a plan of just how to carry this out. A specific parking place for one car was established and the survey began.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected four motions from former Trump associate Roger Stone contesting his indictment on obstruction of justice, witness tampering and other charges, adding that Stone has “no one but himself to blame” for having to stand trial in November. Stone was accused of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress under oath in an effort to mislead the House Intelligence Committee and the FBI about alleged dealings with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election, Politico reported. Stone filed four motions to have his indictment scrapped, arguing that he was unfairly singled out during former...

Roger Stone asked a judge on Friday to suppress certain evidence in the case against him, claiming that it was improperly obtained. Stone's lawyers wrote in a filing that because federal prosecutors said they will not need to prove that Russians were behind the hacks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) or the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), or that Russian gave hacked materials to WikiLeaks, any search warrants issued asserting that those scenarios took place were approved on an "inadequate basis." The filing states that the search warrant applications about Stone showed that the FBI initially investigated him for...

This cemetery in Yekaterinburg is a final resting place for many local stars and war heroes. But one section of the cemetery surrounded by pine trees is special. It is full of huge granite grave-stones with giant realistic portraits of people – many of them wear leather jackets or expensive suits, have thick gold chains and tattoos, hold cigarettes or keys from a Mercedes… All of them belong to representatives of the criminal world murdered in the 1990s – early 2000s. –nextpage–