Hours after one of his political confidants was sentenced to more than three years in prison, President Donald Trump expressed hope Thursday that Roger Stone would get a new trial and be exonerated.
The president asserted that his friend, convicted of lying under oath and of witness tampering, had been treated unfairly.
Trump, speaking in Las Vegas to former prison inmates re-entering society, said he hoped a judge would agree with him that Stone deserved a new trial because one of the jurors allegedly posted anti-Trump material on social media.
“It’s my strong opinion that the forewoman of the jury – the woman who was in charge of the jury – was totally tainted,” Trump said.
Trump added that he’d let the process play out for now but at some point would decide whether to intervene using his presidential clemency powers.