ROGER STONE

A member of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group who was part of a security detail for former President Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone before storming the U.S. Capitol has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.

Hundreds of people have been convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that left dozens of officers injured, sent lawmakers running for their lives and shook the foundations of American democracy.

A federal prosecutor says Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates discussed using violence to overturn the results of the 2020 election for weeks and saw an opportunity to do it when rioters started attacking the Capitol.

A former Ohio bar owner who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a military-style stack formation with fellow members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group has testified that it was a “really stupid” decision.

A defendant charged alongside members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol is playing down his messages about ferrying what he called heavy weapons across the Potomac River.

Lawyers for Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes have rested their case in his Capitol riot trial.

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes says there was no plan for his band of extremists to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has extended the deadline for former President Donald Trump to turn over documents as part of a subpoena issued last month.

The trial of a far-right extremist group leader and four associates charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol has been delayed after the Oath Keepers leader tested positive for the coronavirus.

The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed former President Donald Trump.

An attorney for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol told a federal judge in Phoenix on Tuesday that Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward refused to answer the committee’s questions at a deposition.

Messages show that hours after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group was discussing how to push President Donald Trump to go further in his fight to cling to power.

Prosecutors are saying at the opening of the most serious case to reach trial in the attack on the U.S. Capitol that the founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group and four associates planned for an “armed rebellion” to stop the transfer of presidential power.

A jury in Washington has been selected in the seditious conspiracy case against the founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group and four associates.

Oath Keepers militia group founder Stewart Rhodes was once a promising Yale Law School graduate.

It’s been a long road to the upcoming Capitol riot trial of the the leader of the extremist group Oath Keepers.

The nearly $50 million defamation verdict against Alex Jones for his years of lies about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre is not a final reckoning.

In a Jan. 6 committee hearing already sprinkled with notable moments, Rep. Liz Cheney saved perhaps the most startling one for last.

An upcoming hearing of the House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurrection is expected to examine ties between people in former President Donald Trump's orbit and extremist groups who played a role in the U.S. Capitol riot.

It would have been something never quite seen in America.

More Capitol riot defendants are pushing to get their trials moved out of Washington, D.

The first public hearing of the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack put a spotlight on two far-right extremist groups whose members are accused of plotting for weeks to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

QAnon loyalists, neo-Nazis and a former American president: The list of people banned from Twitter is long, but their exile could soon end if Elon Musk buys the platform.

President Joe Biden has granted the first three pardons of his term.

In taking on Disney, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is testing the limits of his combative leadership style while sending an unmistakable message to his rivals.

In taking on Disney, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is testing the limits of his combative leadership style while sending an unmistakable message to his rivals.

Utah Democrats pulling hard to defeat Republican Sen. Mike Lee took the unusual step Saturday of spurning a party hopeful to instead get behind an independent, former presidential candidate Evan McMullin.

The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection has subpoenaed Kimberly Guilfoyle after she abruptly ended a voluntary interview with lawmakers last week.

A federal judge has refused to free Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from jail while he awaits trial on charges that he plotted with other members of his far-right militia group to attack the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone says he has asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in an interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

A committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection has issued subpoenas to five more individuals, including former President Donald Trump’s ally Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection has issued subpoenas to three extremist organizations, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers as well as their leaders.

Former President Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election united right-wing supporters, conspiracy theorists and militants on Jan. 6.

Before Matt Gaetz rose to national prominence as an ardent backer of Donald Trump, the now-Florida congressman carved out an unusual reputation as a Republican state lawmaker who wanted to liberalize marijuana laws.

Rudy Giuliani sought to discredit the federal investigation into his dealings in Ukraine a day after agents raided his home and office.

The Justice Department has sued Donald Trump's ally Roger Stone, accusing the conservative provocateur and his wife of failing to pay nearly $2 million in income tax.

President Joe Biden's pick for attorney general Merrick Garland, addresses staff on his first day at the Department of Justice, Thursday, March 11, 2021, in Washington. Welcome to the new Justice Department, likely a much tamer place to be after four years of blaring headlines under Donald Trump. The former president insisted that his attorney general, and entire department, be loyal to him personally, battering the department’s reputation for political independence. “When I walked in the door of Main Justice this morning, it really did feel like I was coming home,” Garland said, referring to Justice Department headquarters. AdAbout 15 minutes later, he took the oath of office, administered by Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus.

President Joe Bidens nominee for attorney general will tell Congress the Justice Department must ensure laws are fairly and faithfully enforced," while reaffirming an adherence to policies to protect the departments political independence. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general says the Justice Department must ensure laws are “fairly and faithfully enforced” and the rights of all Americans are protected, while reaffirming an adherence to policies to protect the department’s political independence. The Justice Department released a copy of Garland’s opening statement late Saturday. But Democrats repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like Trump's personal attorney than the attorney general. Garland also addresses domestic terrorism and rising extremist threats, pointing to his prior work in the Justice Department supervising the prosecution following the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City.

Former President Trump has named two lawyers to his impeachment defense team, one day after it was revealed that the former president had parted ways with an earlier set of attorneys. AdThe announcement was intended to promote a sense of stability surrounding the Trump defense team as his impeachment trial nears. Trump’s team had initially announced that Butch Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer, would lead his legal team after an introduction from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Many legal scholars, however, say there is no bar to an impeachment trial despite Trump having left the White House. Schoen met with financier Jeffrey Epstein about joining his defense team on sex trafficking charges just days before Epstein killed himself in a New York jail.

Trump is expected to pardon Bannon, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, as part of a flurry of last-minute clemency action that appears to be still in flux in the last hours of his presidency. Trump did not pardon himself, despite speculation that he would, in the face of potential federal investigations. Another was Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner who was charged last October with cyberstalking during a heated divorce. Bannon was charged in August with duping thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump’s chief campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. “Steve Bannon is getting a pardon from Trump after defrauding Trump’s own supporters into paying for a wall that Trump promised Mexico would pay for,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on Twitter.

President Trump is seen on a network monitor after his pre-recorded farewell speech was released, inside the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, in Washington. “This week we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous,” Trump said in the video “farewell address,” released by the White House less than 24 hours before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. Trump is set to leave Washington early Wednesday morning after a grand farewell event at nearby Joint Base Andrews. He is boycotting not just the ceremony at the Capitol, but also passed on inviting the Bidens to the White House for a get-to-know-you meeting. That threw an already paralyzed White House into even further chaos.

Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. Minutes later, Pence was taken from the Senate chamber to a secret location and police announced the lockdown of the Capitol. Even before the mob reached sealed doors of the House chamber, Capitol Police pulled Pelosi away from the podium, she told “60 Minutes.”“I said, ‘No, I want to be here,’”she said. Back in the House chamber, a woman in the balcony was seen and heard screaming. When they breached the abandoned Senate chamber, they milled around, rummaged through papers, sat at desks and took videos and pictures.

Minutes later, Pence was taken from the Senate chamber to a secret location and police announced the lockdown of the Capitol. Even before the mob reached sealed doors of the House chamber, Capitol Police pulled Pelosi away from the podium, she told “60 Minutes.”“I said, ‘No, I want to be here,’”she said. Back in the House chamber, a woman in the balcony was seen and heard screaming. When they breached the abandoned Senate chamber, they milled around, rummaged through papers, sat at desks and took videos and pictures. These domestic terrorists were in the People’s House, desecrating the People’s House, destroying the People’s House.”___Associated Press writers Dustin Weaver in Washington and Michael Casey in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – “Where are they?” a Trump supporter demanded in a crowd of dozens roaming the halls of the Capitol, bearing Trump flags and pounding on doors. Trump told his morning crowd at the Ellipse that he would go with them to the Capitol, but he didn’t. Yet Trump, in a video posted 90 minutes after lawmakers were evacuated, told the insurrectionists “We love you. Under the very risers set up for Biden’s inauguration, Trump supporters clashed with police who blasted pepper spray in an attempt to hold them back. He said security officers urged lawmakers to put gas masks on and herded them into a corner of the massive room.

At least two local Black churches had Black Lives Matter banners torn down and set ablaze. Tarrio was accused of burning one of the Black Lives Matter banners in December and was found with two high-capacity firearm magazines, police said. A number of prominent Trump supporters were expected to attend, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, the recipient of a pardon by the president. During previous pro-Trump protests, police sealed off Black Lives Matter Plaza itself, but the confrontations spilled out to the surrounding streets. Black Lives Matter Plaza was sealed off Tuesday.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON – Bracing for possible violence, the nation's capital has mobilized the National Guard ahead of planned protests by President Donald Trump's supporters in connection with the congressional vote expected Wednesday to affirm Joe Biden's election victory. Now with downtown D.C. businesses boarding up their windows, Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested a limited National Guard deployment to help bolster the Metropolitan Police Department. Because D.C. does not have a governor, the designated commander of the city’s National Guard is Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. The D.C. Guard will provide specialized teams that will be prepared to respond to any chemical or biological incident. But the official said there will be no D.C. Guard members on the National Mall or at the U.S. Capitol.

FILE - In this Thursday, June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in court in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort, who led Trump's campaign during a pivotal period in 2016 before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, was among the first people charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.

Trump commuted his sentence in July just days before he was scheduled to report to federal prison. The president commuted her sentence; the White House said the commutation was supported by several former U.S. attorneys general. A White House news release praised the men as “model prisoners,” who had earned support and praise from other inmates. She was in the White House when Trump signed the overhaul measure, known as the First Step Act, into law. Black was a co-defendant in the case and was also convicted; Trump previously pardoned him.

FILE - In this Thursday, June 27, 2019 file photo, Paul Manafort arrives in court in New York. President Trump's former campaign manager is to be arraigned on state mortgage fraud charges. Manafort, who led Trump's campaign during a pivotal period in 2016 before being ousted over his ties to Ukraine, was among the first people charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Though the charges against Manafort did not concern the central thrust of Mueller's mandate — whether the Trump campaign and Russia colluded to tip the election — he was nonetheless a pivotal figure in the investigation. Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.

He and his allies have discussed a range of other possibilities, including members of Trump's family and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Trump also commuted the sentences of five other people, including former Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas. Trump also announced pardons for two people entangled in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Trump has granted about 2% of requested pardons in his single term in office — just 27 before Tuesday's announcement. Bush, another one-term president, granted 10% of requests.

WASHINGTON – Advocates and lawyers anticipate a flurry of clemency action from President Donald Trump in the coming weeks that could test the limits of presidential pardon power. No, Mr. President, that would be a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority,” Schumer said. Trump then featured Johnson's story in a Super Bowl ad and pardoned her during this year's Republican National Convention. He has participated in several meetings at the White House during Trump's term as officials brainstormed potential changes to the formal clemency process. “For those people that should be free," he said, Trump's friends-and-family approach to pardons is "a deep and real tragedy."

“It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon," Trump tweeted. A Justice Department official said the department was not consulted on the pardon and learned Wednesday of the plan. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, noted that the president has the legal power to pardon Flynn. “Americans soundly rejected this nonsense when they voted out President Trump. But last May, after years of defending the prosecution, the Justice Department abruptly reversed its position.

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington. The president's legal entanglements are likely to intensify when leaves the White House in January 2021 and loses immunity from prosecution. The probe led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is one of several legal entanglements likely to intensify when Trump loses power — and immunity from prosecution — upon leaving the White House. Trump faces two New York state inquiries into whether he misled tax authorities, banks or business partners. Carroll says Trump raped her in the mid-1990s in a New York department store.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump never admits defeat. But he faces a stark choice now that Democrat Joe Biden has won the White House: Concede graciously for the sake of the nation or don’t — and get evicted anyway. “He intends to fight,” Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said as it was becoming clear that the president was headed for defeat. “What I would tell President Trump is: Don’t give up. “For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight.

FILE - Director Adam McKay appears during a photo call for the film "Vice" at the 2019 Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany on Feb. 11, 2019. It’s also a lively film that resurrects 2000 not just via hanging chads but by following the cultural atmosphere. Alongside interviews with backroom players like Roger Stone, “SNL” sketches make frequent cameos — including some McKay wrote. McKAY: The movie we’re making right now is about a comet that’s going to hit Earth. McKAY: I think it’s the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.

On Friday, Trump told conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh that Justice Department investigators had “plenty of time to do it. After Limbaugh read Trump an Axios story on the topic, Trump said he'd be disappointed if Barr had relayed that message to lawmakers. Still, much of the uptick in tensions between Trump and Barr centers on the Justice Department's handling of the Durham probe. Even the outlines of the case involving FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty in the Durham probe, were already known before he was charged. Trump aides had banked on the Durham probe being finished before 2020 election to lend credibility to Trump’s claims that his own investigative agencies were working against him.

With time running out for pre-election action on the case, Trump is increasingly airing his dissatisfaction in tweets and television appearances. Still, much of the uptick in tensions between Trump and Barr centers on the Justice Department's handling of the Durham probe. A senior administration official said Trump feels like he’s given Barr wide latitude to advance the investigation, including declassifying documents related to Russia. Even the outlines of the case involving FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty in the Durham probe, were already known before he was charged. Barr has privately expressed frustration over the president's public pronouncements on the Durham investigation.

WASHINGTON – Attorney General William Barr is taking aim at his own Justice Department, criticizing prosecutors for behaving as “headhunters" in their pursuit of prominent targets and for using the weight of the criminal justice system to launch what he said were “ill-conceived” political probes. Barr has faced scrutiny for overruling the decisions of Justice Department prosecutors who work for him, including in criminal cases involving associates of President Donald Trump. Good leaders at the Justice Department — as at any organization — need to trust and support their subordinates. But that does not mean blindly deferring to whatever those subordinates want to do.”He also took a veiled swipe at members of Mueller's team. Dreeben was a senior member of Mueller's team.

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2019 file photo, former White House strategist Steve Bannon arrives to testify at the trial of Roger Stone, at federal court in Washington. Bannon was arrested Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, on charges that he and three others ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme We Build The Wall. According to the indictment, Bannon promised that 100% of the donated money would be used for the project, but the defendants collectively used hundreds of thousands of dollars in a manner inconsistent with the organization's public representations. After Trump was elected, he moved on to a top White House strategy post. But Bannon also clashed with other top advisers, and his high profile sometimes irked Trump.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A far-right social media provocateur whose hate speech got her banned from social media won her Republican primary on Tuesday and will challenge Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel for Congress in November. Laura Loomer also won praise from President Donald Trump early Wednesday, who tweeted that she has a great chance." Loomer received 43% in a six-candidate Republican field, garnering 14,500 votes. Frankel, running against a political newcomer, received 75,000 votes, or 86% in the Democratic primary, which had 87,000 votes cast. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Medium, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Uber and Lyft have banned her, but her messages get out through tweets by supporters and other workarounds, the Palm Beach Post reported.

WASHINGTON A former FBI lawyer will plead guilty to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the probe of ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. The investigation has proceeded alongside a parallel effort by Senate Republicans to discredit the Russia probe and as Attorney General William Barr has escalated his own criticism of the FBI's probe. Clinesmith was referred for potential prosecution by the department's inspector general's office, which conducted its own review of the Russia investigation. Former Attorney General Eric Holder selected him during the Obama administration to investigate the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques of terror suspects and the destruction of videotapes documenting that interrogation. Barr signaled his skepticism with the Russia investigation right away, concluding that Trump had not obstructed justice even though Mueller had pointedly left that question unresolved.

FILE - In this March 23, 2020, file photo Attorney General William Barr speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room in Washington. Barr is scheduled to appear for the first time before the House Judiciary Committeeon Tuesday, July 28. Massive but peaceful demonstrations had followed Floyd's death in May. But he will also condemn Americans who he says have responded inappropriately to Floyd's death through what he said was rioting and anarchy. Barr also pushed for a more lenient sentence for another Trump ally, Roger Stone, prompting the entire trial team's departure.

Barr is scheduled to appear for the first time before the House Judiciary Committeeon Tuesday, July 28. Massive but peaceful demonstrations had followed Floyd's death in May. But he will also condemn Americans who he says have responded inappropriately to Floyd's death through what he said was rioting and anarchy. Barr also pushed for a more lenient sentence for another Trump ally, Roger Stone, prompting the entire trial team's departure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday on MSNBC that Democrats want to question Barr about how Trump is undermining the Constitution of the United States. Barr previously rebuffed the House committee and Pelosi said that we hope that he will show up."

They ask Attorney General William Barr about elder fraud. Democrats have suggested he should be impeached and are holding hearings into what they say is the politicization of the Justice Department under his watch. Then, when Bush was elected, Barr joined the Justice Department first as assistant attorney general of the Office of Legal Counsel, then as deputy attorney general, and finally as attorney general. The actions have resulted in open letters signed by thousands of Justice Department alumni who have demanded Barrs resignation. He points to the Justice Department inspector generals report that found flaws in how the FBIs Russia investigation was conducted.

WASHINGTON House Democrats will try to rein in President Donald Trumps clemency powers on Thursday as they advance legislation that would discourage pardons for friends and family and prevent presidents from pardoning themselves. Trump this month commuted Stone's prison sentence for crimes related to the Russia investigation. The move to shield Stone from prison was a dramatic example of Trump's willingness to exert presidential power over criminal cases, including ones prosecuted by his own Justice Department. The House Judiciary Committee will vote on two bills and an amendment that would try to dissuade Trump or any future presidents from abusing their pardon powers. And he has granted clemency in a host of other controversial cases, commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov.

Roger Stone, a political operative whose 40-month prison sentence was commuted this month by President Donald Trump, his longtime friend, used the racial slur Negro on air while verbally sparring with a Los Angeles-based Black radio host. Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison, but Trump commuted that sentence on July 10 just days before Stone was to report for detention. "I'm sorry you're arguing with whom? During the program, Stone said the president acted out of compassion and that the jury that weighed his case was tainted. My life was in imminent danger, Stone said, saying he was at risk of being infected by the coronavirus in prison.

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2019, file photo, Roger Stone arrives at federal court in Washington. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)If you need help with WJXT’s or WCWJ's FCC public inspection file, call (904) 393-9801.

President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Saturday, July 11, 2020. What were watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:Days to general election: 113___THE NARRATIVEThese are among the darkest days of President Donald Trump's presidency. Overall, more than 135,000 people in America have died as a result of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins. ___2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election. ___Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.

NEW YORK A top prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller has a book coming out this fall about the two-year investigation into the alleged ties between Russia and the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump. Random House announced Monday that Andrew Weissmann's Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation will be published Sept. 29. Weissmann, often the target of criticism from Trump supporters, is calling the book a meticulous account of the Mueller team's probe and its ongoing battles with the Trump administration. Under Mueller, Weissmann led the case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in 2018. The Mueller Report, released in April 2019, found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to tip the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in Trumps favor.

WASHINGTON A federal judge on Monday demanded more information about President Donald Trump's decision to commute the prison sentence of longtime ally Roger Stone. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered that the parties provide her by Tuesday with a copy of the executive order that commuted Stone's sentence. She also asked for clarity about the scope of the clemency, including whether it covers just his prison sentence or also the two-year period of supervised release that was part of his sentence. Trump commuted Stone's 40-month prison sentence on Friday evening, just days before he was to report to prison. Democrats lambasted Trump's decision as having undermined the rule of law, and Mueller himself defended the Stone prosecution in a Washington Post opinion piece in which he said Stone remains a convicted felon, and rightly so."

WASHINGTON A Republican governor rumored to be eyeing a run for the White House in 2024 said Sunday that the GOP needs to be a bigger tent party" after President Donald Trump leaves office. Maryland's Larry Hogan, who has been known to break with Trump, told NBC's Meet the Press" that he doesn't know what the future holds in November." But I know that the Republican Party is going to be looking at what happens after President Trump and whether thats in four months or four years, Hogan said. Hogan did not rule out voting for Joe Biden, the Democrat challenging Trump in the November election. In 2016, Hogan wrote in the name of his father, a former Republican congressman from Maryland.

FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2020, file photo, Roger Stone arrives for his sentencing at federal court in Washington. Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place, Trump tweeted. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump confidant, said Stone was convicted of a nonviolent, first-time offense and the president was justified in commuting the sentence. By commuting Stone's sentence, Trump evoked other controversial acts of clemency by his predecessors, though his was done in the height of an election year. Stone, a former Nixon aide, told the AP he expressed his gratitude to Trump in a phone call.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump called Roger Stone to inform his longtime political confidant that he would commute his sentence for crimes related to the Russia investigation, Stone told The Associated Press on Friday, just days before he was set to report to prison. The president told me he thought my trial has been unfair, Stone told the AP in a phone call from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A commutation would not erase Stones felony convictions in the same way a pardon would, but it would protect him from serving prison time as a result. Trump had repeatedly publicly inserted himself into Stones case, including just before Stones sentencing, when he suggested in a tweet that Stone was being subjected to a different standard than several prominent Democrats. Trump went on a clemency spree in February commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of his longtime political confidant Roger Stone, intervening in extraordinary fashion in a criminal case that was central to the Russia investigation and that concerned the president's own conduct. Stone, 67, had been set to report to prison on Tuesday after a federal appeals court rejected his bid to postpone his surrender date. But he told The Associated Press that Trump called him Friday evening to tell him he was off the hook. With this commutation, Trump makes clear that there are two systems of justice in America: one for his criminal friends, and one for everyone else, Schiff said. Trump went on a clemency spree in February, commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov.

WASHINGTON A federal judge is giving Roger Stone, a longtime ally and confidant of President Donald Trump, an additional two weeks before he must report to serve his federal prison sentence. Stone was scheduled to surrender at FCI Jesup, a medium-security federal prison in Georgia on June 30. The home confinement would be monitored by court officials before Stone is required to surrender at the prison on July 14. But officials said last month that Stone would be required to undergo a 14-day quarantine once he arrived at the facility. Stone was sentenced to serve more than three years in prison plus two years probation and a $20,000 fine.

Attorney General William Barr listens during a roundtable with President Donald Trump about America's seniors, in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Monday, June 15, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2019, file photo Roger Stone leaves federal court in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)WASHINGTON A federal prosecutor is prepared to tell Congress on Wednesday that Roger Stone, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was given special treatment ahead of his sentencing because of his relationship with the president. What I heard repeatedly was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the president, Zelinsky says in the prepared testimony. Before Stones Feb. 20 sentencing, Justice Department leadership changed the sentencing recommendation just hours after Trump tweeted his displeasure at the recommendation of up to nine years in prison, saying it had been too harsh. On Tuesday, Stone filed a motion asking to extend his surrender date until September because of coronavirus concerns.

WASHINGTON A federal prosecutor is prepared to tell Congress on Wednesday that Roger Stone, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was given special treatment ahead of his sentencing because of his relationship with the president. The Justice Department did not immediately comment. Before Stones Feb. 20 sentencing, Justice Department leadership changed the sentencing recommendation just hours after Trump tweeted his displeasure at the recommendation of up to nine years in prison, saying it had been too harsh. Stone was later sentenced to serve more than three years in prison plus two years probation and a $20,000 fine. We were not informed about the content or substance of the proposed filing, or even who was writing it.

WASHINGTON House Democrats have subpoenaed two Justice Department lawyers to testify before the Judiciary Committee about the politicization of the agency in the Trump administration, the committees chairman said Tuesday. The subpoenas set up a potential showdown between Congress and Attorney General William Barr about whether the prosecutors would be allowed to appear before the committee and what they would be permitted to discuss. Barr told the AP last year that the Justice Department would seek to block any attempt by Congress to subpoena members of the special counsels team. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the subpoenas. A former official Donald Ayer, who served as deputy attorney general under President George H.W.

WASHINGTON House Democrats say they will hear testimony from Justice Department whistleblowers and attempt to slash the agency's budget, efforts they say are in response to Attorney General William Barrs defiance of Congress and improper politicization of his job. Nadler did not say who the whistleblowers are, and the hearing has not yet been scheduled. He was scheduled to testify in March, but that hearing was canceled when Congress left town due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Justice Department sent Nadler a letter this week citing White House guidance that cabinet-level officials are not permitted to participate in congressional hearings during the month of June without approval from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, according to a person at the Justice Department familiar with the message. Tensions have been high between Barr and the House panel ever since the attorney general declined to show up at a 2019 hearing on special counsel Robert Muellers report.

But Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, will start his prison sentence without needing to comply with a Bureau of Prisons directive that newly sentenced inmates be sent to a federal quarantine site. Just last week, the agency said it would process all newly-sentenced Bureau inmates through one of three quarantine sites or at a federal detention facility. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Sue Allison told The Associated Press that Stone is supposed to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by Saturday and will not be required to go to a quarantine facility. Stone will need to quarantine for 14 days at the prison where he surrenders, Allison said. Stone was sentenced to serve more than three years in prison plus two years probation and a $20,000 fine.

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily prevented the House of Representatives from obtaining secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The American people deserve the truth.The case is one of several ongoing court disputes between the Trump administration and Congress. The Supreme Court heard arguments last week over whether Trumps accountants and banks must turn over financial records to House committees. Portions of the report were blacked out, including grand jury testimony and material that Mueller said could harm ongoing investigations or infringe on the privacy of third parties. Grand jury testimony is typically treated as secret, in part to protect the privacy of people who are not charged or are considered peripheral to a criminal investigation.

Bannon said that during the Trump 2016 campaign, Stone "implied" that WikiLeaks had materials that would help Donald Trump and possibly hurt Hillary Clinton's chance at the presidency. Bannon said the Trump campaign viewed Stone as an "access point" to WikiLeaks. "The campaign had no official access to WikiLeaks or to Julian Assange, but Roger would be considered, if we needed, an access point -- an access point because he had implied or told me that he had a relationship with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange," Bannon said. When asked about how Stone would talk about his relationship with WikiLeaks and Assange, Bannon said, "I wouldn't call it bragging but maybe boasting. One day after Bannon was publicly announced as the new head of the Trump campaign, Stone sent Bannon an email offering his advice on how to make up the major polling deficit Trump was facing.