The radio host and comedian witness that Roger Stone was convicted of tampering with has penned a letter to the judge asking that Stone not be sent to prison. Randy Credico said that he feels “so strongly about this for a number of reasons.”
In case you missed it in Nov. 2019 somehow, Stone stood trial and was found guilty of seven criminal counts, relating to obstruction, witness tampering and lying to federal investigators. That trial took just a week and a half.
Prosecutors alleged that Stone lied when he testified before the House Intelligence Committee regarding his interactions with WikiLeaks, took steps to obstruct investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and tampered with witness Credico:
After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (“HPSCI”), the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (“SSCI”), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) opened or announced their respective investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which included investigating STONE’s claims of contact with Organization 1.
In response, STONE took steps to obstruct these investigations. Among other steps to obstruct the investigations, STONE:
a. Made multiple false statements to HPSCI about his interactions regarding Organization 1, and falsely denied possessing records that contained evidence of these interactions; and b. Attempted to persuade a witness to provide false testimony to and withhold pertinent information from the investigations.
Much has been made of Stone urging Credico to “do a ‘Frank Pentangeli'” and the alleged threat to kidnap Credico’s dog, but Credico is now telling Judge Amy Berman Jackson that he didn’t really believe Stone would ever harm him or his dog Bianca. In reality, Stone’s defense attorneys didn’t question Credico at trial in a way that would have made that clear, according to Credico:
I am writing to respectfully yet fervently implore you not to send Roger Stone to prison when he is sentenced before your Honor. I feel so strongly about this for a number reasons.
Let me begin my saying I stand by my testimony in your courtroom on November 7-8, 2019. In fact, I stand by all of my testimony throughout the Mueller investigation and there pre-trial conversations I had with the DC prosecution team. That being said, there was more I wish I had the opportunity to express had I not been limited by the questions asked of me.
Most notably was after Mr. Stone’s defense attorney asked I had ever thought Mr. Stone was going to steal or harm my dog Bianca. My answer was an emphatic “No.” At the time I was hoping he would follow that question with another asking if I had ever personally felt threatened by Mr. Stone. The answer would have been the same. I never in any way felt that stone himself posed a direct physical threat to me or to my dog. I chalked up his bellicose tirades to “Stone being Stone.” All bark and no bite!
Credico didn’t stop there.
He said that understood Stone broke federal laws, but suggested that it would be cruel to sentence Stone to prison when the judge can sentence him to participate in “an alternative to incarceration program.”
“Roger Stone certainly rubs a lot of people the wrong way, particularly those on the receiving end of his wee hours lowbrow character attacks. Stone enjoys playing adolescent mind games and pulling off juvenile stunts, gags and pranks. He shamelessly invents and promotes outlandish and invidious conspiracy tales,” Credico continued. “But the bottom line is Mr. Stone, at his core, is an insecure person who craves and recklessly pursues attention.”
Credico argued that prison is “no remedy” for that.
Sentencing has been pushed back to Feb. 20.
[Image via Alex Wong/Getty Images]
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