Former Donald Trump adviser convicted on charges stemming from Russia inquiry
15 November 2019, 17:03
A former adviser to Donald Trump has been convicted of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton's 2016 election bid.
Roger Stone was charged with offences which had stemmed from the Russian inquiry, and was found to ave told five "whoppers" while testifying to the House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian collusion during the 2016 election.
He is the sixth Trump aide or adviser to be convicted of charges brought as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Stone, who called himself "dirty trickster" was convicted by a jury on all seven counts on Friday afternoon and now faces up to 20 years inside federal prison.
The 67-year-old was an adviser to President Trump during his 2016 election campaign.
Stone has denied wrongdoing and consistently criticised the case against him as politically motivated. He did not take the stand during the trial and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his defence.
Stone, 67, could face up to 20 years in prison.
In a trial that lasted about a week, witnesses highlighted how Trump campaign associates were eager to gather information about emails the US says were hacked by Russia and then provided to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
Steve Bannon, who served as the campaign's chief executive, testified during the trial that Stone had boasted about his ties to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, alerting them to pending new batches of damaging emails. Campaign officials saw Stone as the "access point" to WikiLeaks, he said.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors used Stone's own text messages and emails - some of which appeared to contradict his congressional testimony - to lay out their case that he lied to Congress and threatened a witness.
Stone has been released until his sentencing on 6 February.
