Roger Stone: With coronavirus, my jail time is 'essentially a death sentence'

Roger Stone told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday night that his upcoming prison sentence would essentially be a “death sentence” due to underlying health problems amid the coronavirus pandemic. Stone’s interview with Carlson came after a 16-month gag order on the longtime Republican operative was lifted this week. The order was lifted as …

Stone’s interview with Carlson came after a 16-month gag order on the longtime Republican operative was lifted this week. The order was lifted as a federal judge on Thursday rejected Stone’s motion for a new trial.

Stone, 67, was sentenced to more than three years in prison in February for lying to Congress and witness tampering.

“So at this point, the judge has ordered me to surrender in two weeks and at 67 years old with some underlying health problems, including a history of asthma, I believe with the coronavirus it is essentially a death sentence,” Stone said Friday.

The former Trump campaign adviser argued that his prosecution was politically motivated because he “refused to bear false witness” against President Trump.

“I wasn’t prosecuted because I was covering anything up for the president,” Stone said. “I was prosecuted because I refused to bear false witness against the president. I refused to dissemble, as the prosecutors wanted, about numerous phone calls between myself and candidate Trump in 2016.”

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was appointed by then-President Obama, ruled against the argument by Stone’s legal team that one juror was biased against their client and therefore had tainted the verdict.

“The assumption underlying the motion – that one can infer from the juror’s opinions about the President that she could not fairly consider the evidence against the defendant – is not supported by any facts or data and it is contrary to controlling legal precedent,” Jackson wrote in an 81-page opinion. “The motion is a tower of indignation, but at the end of the day, there is little of substance holding it up.”

Carlson has called for the president to pardon Stone, arguing the sentencing was too harsh.

“Stone and his wife, who is 71 years old and deaf, have lost their home because of this,” Carlson said on his program in February.

“They have no insurance. They’re utterly broke. The whole thing is shocking and it’s disgusting. It’s a farce that discredits the entire American justice system,” the host continued.

“The president must pardon Roger Stone or commute his sentence before he goes to jail,” Carlson later added.

Trump weighed in on Stone being denied a new trial late Friday, calling it a “disgraceful situation.”