Roger Stone moves to disqualify judge

Roger Stone, a convicted former campaign adviser to President Trump, moved Friday to disqualify the judge in his case after being sentenced to more than three years in prison.

In an effort to score a new trial, Stone’s lawyers are saying that Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s assertion that the jurors served with integrity is untrue and that the jury’s foreperson was biased against Stone.

“Stone’s Motion for New Trial is directly related to the integrity of a juror,” the motion reads. “It is alleged that a juror misled the Court regarding her ability to be unbiased and fair and the juror attempted to cover up evidence that would directly contradict her false claims of impartiality.”

Jackson made the remarks during the trial in a heated exchange between Stone’s legal team.

“Sure, the defense is free to say, ‘So what? Who cares?’ But I’ll say this: Congress cared,” Jackson said. “The United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia that prosecuted the case and is still prosecuting the case cared. The jurors who served with integrity under difficult circumstances cared. The American people cared. And I care.”

Stone was convicted in November of seven counts of obstructing and lying to Congress and witness tampering related to his efforts to provide the Trump campaign with inside information about WikiLeaks in 2016. 

Last week, all four prosecutors on the Stone case quit after the Department of Justice asked for a lighter sentence than what the prosecutors recommended. Stone’s roughly three-year sentence is less than half of what prosecutors recommended based on the penal code — seven to nine years. 

Stone was sentenced on Thursday by Jackson, who said Stone’s sentence will be delayed from going into effect until after she rules on his motion for a new trial.