A document outlining the judge's order states that Stone's "conviction is final, and any appeal must be filed within fourteen days of the date of this order" and that "the defendant must surrender for service of his sentence designated by the Bureau of Prisons."
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 16, 2020
Jackson's decision comes after Stone argued that a juror was biased against him. However, according to Jackson, that allegation was "unmoored from facts."
“The defendant has not shown that the juror lied; nor has he shown that the supposedly disqualifying evidence could not have been found through the exercise of due diligence at the time the jury was selected,” Jackson wrote in her decision Thursday.
“Moreover, while the social media communications may suggest that the juror has strong opinions about certain people or issues, they do not reveal that she had an opinion about Roger Stone, which is the opinion that matters,” the judge added.
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) April 16, 2020
Jackson filed 81-page opinion explaining her rejection and specifically outlining how none of Stone's claims warrant a new trial. Jackson also wrote that Stone's claims did not supply "any reason to believe there has been a 'serious miscarriage of justice'" that would warrant a new trial.
Jackson's denial of a new trial means that Stone may begin serving his 40-month prison term within the next two weeks, CNBC reported.
Stone has long been Trump’s ally and was a campaign adviser during his 2016 presidential bid. In January 2019, Stone was arrested in relation to then-Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe regarding alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. Stone was accused of lying during his 2017 testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about his reported mediation between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, and he was convicted of seven felony counts. Trump may still end up pardoning Stone.
