Republican operative Roger Stone told a federal appeals court that the denial of his request for a two-month delay in his prison term was based on out-of-date information on the spread of the coronavirus in the medium-security facility where he'll spend 40 months.
Stone, convicted of lying to Congress during its probe of Russian election interference, is due to report to the federal prison in Jesup, Georgia, on July 14. In a filing on Friday, he urged the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to delay his surrender date to Sept. 3, arguing that 20 inmates and four staff members had contracted the deadly virus. That compares with when U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied his request for the delay on the grounds that the facility had no cases, he said.
Stone's request came days after he issued a statement pleading with President Donald Trump to commute his sentence, which would allow him to remain free while he appeals his conviction. The president has supported Stone, tweeting last month that his longtime ally was "a victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt."
On Friday, Stone said in a text message that he hadn't heard from anyone in the White House.
Stone also blasted the Justice Department's decision on Thursday to withdraw its support for his request.
"It is unconscionable for the government to argue that this court should ignore these new material facts and instead affirm the lower court's decision based on very different material facts, when the difference literally is a life-threatening one for someone with Mr. Stone's serious medical conditions," Stone's lawyer, Seth Ginsberg, said in the filing.
