June 27 (UPI) — A federal judge has ordered Roger Stone to report to prison July 14 — marking a two-week delay in the beginning of his sentence but denying the two-month wait he requested.
Stone, 67, is a former Trump campaign adviser who in November was convicted of lying and witness tampering in a congressional investigation.
Stone has been out on bail since his sentencing in February.
He had been scheduled to start serving his 40-month sentence in April, but that date was pushed back to June 30.
Stone then requested a delay until Sept. 3 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the Justice Department’s policy has been to grant up to 60 days if defendants ask for them, “without respect to age, health, or other COVID-19 risk factors.”
“This will address the defendant’s stated medical concerns during the current increase of reported cases in Florida, and Broward County in particular, and it will respect and protect the health of other inmates who share defendant’s anxiety over the potential introduction and spread of the virus at this now-unaffected facility,” said the court order signed by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
Jackson also ordered Stone to remain under home confinement until July 14, saying the two-week delay would allow him time to quarantine himself to ensure he did not take the novel coronavirus from his home in South Florida to the prison.
Stone was convicted of lying during a September 2017 testimony to the House Intelligence Committee to hide his role as an “access point” for WikiLeaks, which in 2016 published information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton obtained by hackers.
