Roger Stone said Friday his attorneys will file an emergency motion in federal court to try to push back the start of his 40-month prison sentence from its current date of June 30.
Stone, President Trump’s longtime confidant and former adviser, said in a social media post that his lawyers plan to file the motion next week in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Posting on Instagram, Stone said he learned earlier Friday that both the federal Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Attorney for D.C. oppose delaying his surrender date beyond June 30.
“Therefore, I have instructed my attorneys to file an immediate emergency motion with Judge Amy Berman Jackson asking for an extension in my surrender date because of the dangers of coronavirus, and at the same time asking to be left out of prison on an appeal bond pending the hearing of my very real appeal,” Stone said in a brief Instagram video.
“I am not optimistic about a favorable ruling on either motion given the history of this trial, but I do feel an obligation to pursue every legal avenue, and exhaust them, before going formally to the president of the United States and appealing for a pardon or commutation of sentence in the name of both mercy and justice,” he said.
Stone was sentenced in February to serve more than three years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of seven counts of witness tampering, obstruction and perjury, but he has remained free in the four months that have followed while challenging his conviction and the sentence he received in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
He previously said that he had been asked to start serving his sentence on April 30, but that his surrender date was postponed because of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.
“At 67 years old, with some underlying health problems including a history of asthma, I believe with the coronavirus it is essentially a death sentence,” Stone said previously.
Mr. Trump has slammed Stone’s sentence as well, meanwhile. Commenting on this case from his Twitter last month, the president tweeted in part: “DISGRACEFUL! Stay tuned.”
Spokespeople for the Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. did not immediately return messages requesting comment.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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