Stone rails against US justice system in first TV interview since Trump commuted his sentence

Roger Stone railed Monday against the U.S. justice system in his first television interview since President Trump stepped in and commuted his more than three-year prison sentence.

Stone, a longtime ally and confidant of Trump, claimed that he had a “biased judge” and a “stacked jury” and that he was prosecuted by “really sadistic, arrogant, politically motivated prosecutors.”

“I’m afraid this is a fixed system,” Stone told Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

“This is the most horrible experience you can have,” Stone continued. “I see immediately why 99 percent of the people who choose to plead not guilty and go to trial lose when you’re up against the horrific and deep-pocketed resources of the federal government.”

Stone was convicted in November by a jury in Washington, D.C., on all counts he was charged with in connection with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, including lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction.

Trump commuted Stone’s sentence the same day an appeals court denied Stone’s motion to delay his prison term, which was slated to begin Tuesday.

While the commutation was not particularly shocking, as Trump had dropped hints in recent weeks about intervening in the case, the move sparked fierce backlash from the president’s critics.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who leads the congressional panel that Stone lied to in 2017 during its investigation into Russian interference, sharply criticized Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s sentence as “among the most offensive to the rule of law and principles of justice.”

Mueller, who led the nearly two-year investigation, penned an op-ed in The Washington Post on Saturday in which he wrote that Stone “remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”

Stone, in his interview with Hannity, appeared to take a victory lap, maintaining his innocence, praising Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson for being his allies throughout the trial, and echoing the president by attacking the Mueller probe as a hoax. 

“I have deep, deep affection for Donald Trump because I’ve known him for 30 years,” Stone told Hannity.

Stone said Trump saved his life, as he is 67 years old with respiratory issues and was set to enter a prison with outbreaks of the coronavirus.

“He’s a man of great justice and fairness. He’s a man of enormous courage. I knew he would take some shots for this, but I think most people most fair-minded people understand. He saved my life,” said Stone.