Stone sentenced

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U.S. political consultant Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, speaks to reporters after appearing before a closed House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Photo credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Roger Stone received a 40-month sentence last week from Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Three years and four months is, of course, less than the 7-9 years prosecutors had sought before revising that recommendation (and you know what happened next). Ken and Josh recap the sentencing hearing and what’s next for Stone. He hasn’t gone to prison yet. He’s trying to get a new trial, saying his conviction was tainted because the jury foreperson was biased. Did anyone make a mistake here?

Then: more about Jessie Liu, who was President Trump’s duly nominated and confirmed US Attorney for the District of Columbia, until she was fired. Liu was supposed to be promoted to a senior Senate-confirmed job at the Treasury Department, but President Trump withdrew that nomination and fired her -- apparently, according to reporting from Axios -- that she had prosecuted too many of his friends and failed to indict Hillary Clinton and Andrew McCabe. Remember how, in 2006, George W. Bush fired his own US attorneys because they refused to pursue flimsy voter fraud prosecutions? That was an enormous scandal. Why not this? If prosecutors sought but didn’t get a grand jury indictment, is that basically a check on the president here?

Finally: Devin Nunes has sued Fusion GPS for civil RICO. Ken, is it RICO yet?

Credits

Producer:

Sara Fay