Roger Stone, Donald Trump's ally, convicted of witness tampering, lying to Congress

United States President Donald Trump’s longtime ally Roger Stone was convicted on all counts, on November 15, including lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the house investigation. Stone became the sixth Trump’s aide to be convicted on the charges brought as part of Mueller’s report, based on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. 

Failed to call any witnesses

Though Trump’s informal adviser denied any wrongdoing and called all the charges politically motivated, his lawyers failed to call any witnesses in his defence. Roger Stone now faces a prison sentence for all the crimes which include up to 20 years in jail for witness tampering while other cases can carry up to five years each. Stone will be sentenced on February 6 for the crimes he committed.

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Trump calls it 'double standard'

The verdict also created a little drama in the courtroom after Michael Caputo, another former Trump campaign aide, turned his back on the jury and had to be removed from the courtroom. President Trump expressed his obvious dissatisfaction on the verdict calling it a double standard.

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An unredacted copy of Mueller report

The Mueller report, which led to many convictions, never established that there was a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential elections. But a US district court judge, on October 25, had ordered Trump administration to hand over the unredacted copy of Mueller report to House Judiciary Committee validating the legality of the impeachment inquiry against him. The judge also observed that the House Judiciary Committee performs a function similar to a grand jury and it should have the necessary materials to investigate the conduct of the President. 

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(With AP inputs)