While prosecutors did not object to Stone’s request to Jackson to delay his scheduled prison reporting date from late June to early September, Stone’s latest legal filing indicates that the United States Attorney’s Office In Washington he has told his lawyers that he will oppose their effort to have the appeals court intervene and force such a delay.
However, prosecutors apparently will not object to a brief delay to allow the DC Circuit to consider the matter.
In a social media post Monday night, Stone said he viewed the latest legal action as a remote possibility, but that he was determined to seek all options in the court system, even when seeking Trump’s forgiveness.
“I recognize that there is a good chance that the appeals court will return the matter to Judge Jackson,” Stone wrote on Instagram, “but it is vitally important that the American people see all the false claims in their most recent ruling, and I want the President to know that, in good faith, I have exhausted all my legal remedies and that I am only acting on clemency by The presidency [sic] it will provide justice in my case where I was charged with politically motivated charges and denied a fair trial with an impartial judge, honest jury, and non-corrupt and non-political prosecutors. ”
Trump has said Stone should not worry about being sent to prison, but the president has also predicted that his longtime confidant will be exonerated from the legal system. The president has strongly hinted that he will provide a pardon or a commutation if necessary to prevent Stone from being jailed.
Before Jackson’s decision last week, Stone said he was facing “certain” death in prison due to the virus. Online, he criticized the effort to imprison him as a “death sentence” and “an attempt to kill me.”
In his social media posts, Stone publicly said he has asthma and a history of respiratory problems. However, court documents detailing Stone’s medical history were sealed, including a letter from a Miami Beach internist, Islon Woolf, who is described as Stone’s “treating doctor”.
“The district court does not recognize … that Dr. Woolf explains that the ‘lack of relevant data and guidance for patients suffering’ from Stone’s condition is ‘very concerning’ but that, depending on the nature of the condition, it is reasonable to speculate that Stone is ‘at increased risk of infection and increased risk of complications from COVID-19,’ ”attorneys Seth Ginsberg and David Schoen wrote in the presentation of the DC circuit.
The attorneys said that by not detailing the health problem publicly, they were deferring Jackson’s decision to treat it as confidential. She described Stone’s health condition as “medically controlled,” but her lawyers accuse her of “completely ignoring” the doctor’s advice.
“The district court … disregards the fact that it may not be possible for Stone’s medical conditions, which require strict control and strict compliance with his doctor’s instructions, to remain controlled within a [Bureau of Prisons] installation, ”wrote Ginsberg and Schoen.
Defense attorneys also questioned Jackson’s assessment that Stone has already benefited from a federal prison policy to allow defendants in nonviolent cases to turn themselves in for an additional 60 days as authorities try to keep prison counts down to avoid coronavirus outbreaks by allowing some social distancing. His attorneys contend that this policy did not cause an earlier delay from late April to late June.
While the Georgia prison had not officially reported any Covid-19 cases among prisoners or staff as of the date of Jackson’s order, as of Monday night tThe federal prisons website Virus monitoring reported three infected inmates at Jesup, six positive tests among inmates, and no infection among staff.
Stone and his attorneys have repeatedly pointed out that because federal prisoner testing has been limited, outbreaks at those facilities are likely to be more widespread than official accounts indicate.
After a week-long trial last November, a Washington jury found guilty stone on the seven felony charges he faced: five of making false statements to Congress, one of obstruction of Congress, and one of witnesses that altered both the House Intelligence Committee investigation and the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
In February, Attorney General William Barr stirred charges of political interference in the case when he intervened to overturn prosecutors’ recommendation of a seven to nine-year sentence for Stone under federal sentencing guidelines. All four prosecutors in the case withdrew when Barr intervened, and one resigned entirely from the government.
Jackson largely agreed with prosecutors on his initial calculation of the guidelines, but ultimately sentenced Stone to only half the time the prosecution originally sought.
Stone has an appeal pending of his convictions and sentences, but Barr called the charge “fair.”
Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
