Roger Stone sentenced to 40 months in prison

Roger Stone is a bullish and flamboyant right-wing gadfly, always a phone call away from President Trump or anyone else who wants to talk, and a résumé that dates back to the Nixon years.

Stone's resume was compelling enough to inspire a Netflix documentary, "Get Me Roger Stone," chronicling his life in national politics — one that began as a trickster for Richard Nixon, endured a scandalous setback in the mid 1990s and reemerged in the last two decades as, among other things, a voice directing Donald Trump toward the presidential trough.

But Stone's ride ended early. He was fired by Trump's campaign in August 2015, relegated — or so it seemed — to the that vast swirling orbit of off-the-books Trump whisperers. But his influence remained apparent through the primaries and into the general election contest with Hillary Clinton. When Trump decided to fire FBI Director James Comey in early May, he did it with a push from Stone.

Whether Stone has a personal connection to, or possessed any forward knowledge of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 campaign remains to be seen. In March 2017, he downplayed contacts with "Guccifer 2.0," an online personality who has claimed responsibility for the DNC hack, denying any potential collusion.

Days later, Stone was again in his natural habitat — the headlines — after he volunteered to speak with the House Intelligence Committee investigating Trump and Russia about his role as a campaign associate.

"I acknowledge I am a hardball player. I have sharp elbows. I always play politics the way it is supposed to be played," Stone told CNN in typically theatrical tones. "But one thing isn't in my bag of tricks — treason."

Today's sentencing of Trump ally Roger Stone comes after a tremulous week at the Justice Department over the case. Federal prosecutors resigned from the case after Justice Department officials overrode their initial recommended sentence.

Here's a day-by-day look at how her got here:

Almost six months after special counsel Robert Mueller formally ended his investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia in 2016, a wealth of new information about the President's involvement came out in the criminal trial of his former adviser Roger Stone.

The case grew out of the Mueller investigation, but the jury heard details that — because of the Stone case — were hidden from the public when the Mueller report was released earlier this year. Stone has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstruction of Congress, lying to Congress and witness tampering.

What we learned: The most significant revelation in the trial was the extent to which Stone was in touch with Trump directly and other campaign officials, and how they eagerly anticipated WikiLeaks' releases of hacked Democratic emails in 2016.

Witnesses — including former top Trump strategist Steve Bannon and former deputy campaign chair Rick Gates — emphasized the campaign's enthusiasm about hacks and leaks dating back to April 2016. News of the hacks first broke in June 2016, and WikiLeaks started dumping the stolen documents in July 2016, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

Prosecutors showed line charts that visualized Stone's communications with top Trump officials. The lines spiked around key moments of the Democratic hack and WikiLeaks releases of the stolen data. In all, the prosecutors discussed several phone calls placed between Trump and Stone — often around dates when the hacks were in the news.

That included a July 2016 conversation between Trump and Stone, apparently about what WikiLeaks had lined up for the autumn, ahead of the general election.

Roger Stone, a political provocateur and longtime ally of President Trump, will be sentenced today amid a tumultuous week that saw President Trump suggest the judge in the case is biased and several prosecutors quit after Justice Department leadership rescinded their initial sentencing recommendation.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Tuesday she'll consider his latest request for a new trial on a different schedule and will give him time to appeal after she makes her sentencing judgment.

Stone was convicted last year on seven charges of obstruction, lying to Congress and witness tampering, but has asked for a new trial.

Some background: The hearing comes after the four prosecutors who took Stone's case to trial argued he should be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison. 

All four prosecutors withdrew from the case last Tuesday in response to the controversial and politically charged decision by Attorney General William Barr to retract the prosecutors' recommended sentence, which came hours after Trump criticized it on Twitter for being too harsh.

One supervising prosecutor from the DC US Attorney's Office, John Crabb, Jr., stepped up to file the revised Justice Department recommendation — which takes no position on Stone's deserved prison time, and instead argues it should not be as severe as seven years but is up to the judge.

Since the prosecutor debacle, which has shaken current and former attorneys across the Justice Department, the jury forewoman from Stone's trial publicly defended the four prosecutors. Right-wing commentators then accused her of bias against Trump.

Stone is asking for no prison time. He has already lost one bid for a new trial after he challenged a juror for his or her employment with the IRS and for reading about his case in the news.