Roger Stone got 40 months. That seems right to me. Not that I think he’ll serve even a day. It’s pretty clear that Trump will pardon him. The only question is whether he’ll wait for him to go through the appeals process (assuming he doesn’t have to wait in jail) or do it right away. I’m quite sure Trump wants to do it now but perhaps cooler heads have prevailed simply because of the looming election. Trump himself is way past caring about appearances, not that he ever really did.
As Stone gets a jail sentence, I’m reminded of this story about Stone and his good buddy Alex Jones at the Republican convention in 2016:
As Jones made it to the stage about two hours into the rally, the crowd, many decked out in Infowars gear (some with holstered guns), drew in closer to get a glimpse of their messiah. The DNA supplement taker proselytized about Hillary Clinton and her secret ties to communist China, the looming rise of nationalism and the death of the dinosaur media (typified today by Mother Jones’ David Corn, who was invited to join Jones onstage.
“You are the resistance. You are the reason the globalists are in so much trouble. You are part of 1776,” Jones screamed, his face turning various shades of purple like a toe throbbing in the sunlight. “We salute you. Infowars salutes you,” he said before exiting stage right.
Next up to the plate was Roger Stone, a former adviser to Richard Nixon and the source of some of the most unsavory media stories about Trump’s Republican opponents and the Clintons.
Wearing an eggshell-white suit, with his snow white hair standing at odds and ends in the wind, Stone introduced himself as “Italian from the waist down,” before eviscerating Hillary Clinton with a series of half-truths and flat-out unsubstantiated claims.
“They don’t tell us about Vince Foster,” Stone said at one point—after shedding his jacket and tossing it aside. “There was carpet fiber all over his body. They rolled him up in a carpet.”
Stone, who is not formally attached to the Trump campaign in any way, claimed during his speech that he was late because he had met with Trump staffers.
When The Daily Beast asked who these staffers were after the event, Stone replied: “Manafort, Fabrizio—two of my oldest comrades in arms—and Jason Miller; a real pro.” Those people, of course, are Trump’s campaign chairman, one of his pollsters and his communications manager. Miller did not immediately respond to an emailed request for confirmation from The Daily Beast.
“This is dirty money and the Clintons have blood on their hands,” Stone said before wrapping up his address with the infamous two-handed peace sign, an indelible image associated with Nixon—the man whose face is tattooed on Stone’s back.
He is not just a clown. He has been infecting American politics with this disgusting character assassination for nearly 50 years and has finally been taken to task for covering up for someone who is just as corrupt and toxic as he is.
I doubt he’ll pay much of a price, unfortunately. He’s now elevated to the status of martyr in the right-wing fever swamps and will make a ton of money out of all this once Trump pardons him. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him right back in the saddle in a couple of months, back to his old dirty tricks, helping the most corrupt president in American history win another term.
But he’s had some sleepless nights, I’m sure. But Roger Stone knows too much about everyone to actually do any time. Richard Nixon would be so proud of his boy.