Recently convicted felon Roger Stone, a longtime friend and advisor of the president, was ordered to begin his prison sentence on June 30.
Stone, who sentenced in February to just over three years in prison, will not have to begin his stint in federal lockup by completing a 14-day quarantine at a federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) site, the Associated Press reported Friday.
According to the report, Stone will not have to be quarantined because of an exception to the BOP’s pandemic directive for newly sentenced inmates that was not explicitly stated in the text of the policy.
“Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Sue Allison told The Associated Press that Stone is supposed to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by June 30 and will not be required to go to a quarantine facility,” the report stated. “That’s because he’s voluntarily surrendering, she said. The agency has an exemption for those who are voluntarily surrendering, absolving them of the requirement to be sent to a quarantine site, a policy designed to stop the spread of coronavirus that has exploded in the federal prison system. The exception was not laid out in the policy the agency made public last week.”
Stone was convicted on seven counts in November 2019 for obstruction, witness tampering, and lying to Congress–prosecutors said, in an apparent bid to protect Trump–when he testified before the House Intelligence Committee about his relationship with government transparency publication WikiLeaks. The content of those hearings was eventually subsumed into the general “Russiagate” probe led by then-special counsel Robert Mueller.
The report also noted that by not subjecting Stone to the generally applicable quarantine policy, the BOP is “likely to ignite inquiries” from Democrats in Congress for continuing to give allies of President Donald Trump special treatment.
Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was released from federal prison earlier this month to serve the remainder of his 7.5 year sentence from home. Manafort was released to home confinement despite failing to meet BOP’s guidelines for prioritizing prisoners who have served at least 50-percent of their sentences, or who have served 25-percent of their sentences with less than 18 months remaining.
Michael Cohen, the president’s former “fixer” and friend, was also released from federal prison this month after having his allegedly promised early release revoked and then re-approved.
Roger Stone recently did an interview in which he said he was the victim of a “witch hunt” and “legal proctological exam.”
[image via Mark Wilson_Getty Images]
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