(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- Roger Stone has decided to drop the appeal of his criminal conviction.
The long-time friend of President Donald Trump didn’t go into much detail for why he was doing so. Stone will now be a convicted felon, though he won’t serve any time in prison.
Despite Stone being sentenced to more than three years behind bars, he won’t serve one day since Trump commuted his sentence in July.
On Monday, Stone posted a message on his website that said “my attorneys have convinced me that the odds of victory were slim.”
“It is time for me to move on with my life with my family, friends and supporters. I regret not going forward with the appeal to fully expose all that happened, with the hope that by doing so, I could help prevent it from happening to anyone else ever again; but I had to decide based on what is best for me and my family.”
In other words, Stone would only be continuing his appeal to expose wrongdoings of the investigation into election tampering for the 2016 presidential election. His appeal also would have cleared his name and his criminal record, if it were successful.
Robert Mueller, who headed up that Russia investigation, wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post following Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s sentence. In it, he wrote of Stone:
“He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”
Last November, Stone was convicted on seven counts of lying to Congress, witness tampering for trying to cover up efforts to obtain documents from Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign, and obstruction of Congress.
To the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Stone wrote Monday night:
“I have been fully informed of the circumstances of my case and the consequences of a dismissal, and I wish to dismiss the appeal.”
Stone’s appeal efforts were attempting to invalidate the unanimous verdict a Washington jury handed down on all counts being brought against him. His argument was that the trial judge erred and also that some of the jurors were prejudiced against him.
When Trump commuted Stone’s sentence in July, he said Stone was a victim of the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. He released a statement saying Stone deserved “every opportunity to vindicate himself before the courts.”
It also apparently won’t be the last person that Trump helps out legally. On Monday, Trump announced to the White House press corps that he was planning to pardon someone “very, very important” on Tuesday.
While there was no direct word as to who would benefit from this pardon, Trump did say it wouldn’t go to two prominent people – Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor who filed a whistleblower complaint, and Michael Flynn, his former national security advisor who is currently appealing his case in which he plead guilty multiple times to lying to the FBI.
Who that person will be is probably going to be released sometime this week.
