Six Former Trump Campaign Figures Are Now Convicted Felons
Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser and longtime confidante to President Donald Trump, was sentenced to 40 months in prison on Thursday for witness tampering and lying to Congress. Stone’s legal team is making a bid for a new trial and Trump has hinted at a possible pardon, but the sentence marks a notable development in the ongoing political firestorm surrounding the president, his ex-partner, and Attorney General Bill Barr.
The significance of the moment might be dampened, however, by the fact that Stone is hardly the only person close to Trump who has now been convicted and sentenced for breaking the law. Stone comes on the heels of 5 other convicted individuals involved in the Trump campaign, so let’s have a little reminder of who they are.
Paul Manafort was Trump’s former campaign chairman for 5 months during the 2016 election, but in 2018, he was convicted for multiple counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and other financial crimes. He was sentenced to 47 months in prison.
(Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images)
Michael Cohen was formerly the executive vice-president of the Trump Organization and was the president’s personal lawyer. In 2018, Cohen plead guilty to bank fraud, tax fraud, lying to Congress, and violating campaign finance law. Cohen claims he broke campaign finance laws in order to help Trump cover-up his alleged affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal and his sentence was set for 3 years.
(Photo by Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)
General Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, left his position early in the president’s administration after his conversations with the Russians were revealed. In 2017, he plead guilty to giving the FBI false statements about his conversations with the Russia’s former ambassador to the U.S. While this admission came over two years ago, Flynn has not been sent to prison yet because he has tried to withdraw his guilty plea, resulting in a postponement of his sentence.
Rick Gates, Trump’s former campaign deputy, was a former business partner of Manafort and the two of them worked together for Trump in 2016. In 2019, Gates was sentenced to 45 days in jail, 3 years of probation, a $20,000 fine and 300 hours of community service for assisting Manafort in his financial conspiracy. Gates’ sentence was lessened somewhat in recognition of the testimony and cooperation he provided for the Mueller investigation.
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George Papadopoulos was a foreign policy adviser to Trump in the 2016 campaign, but in 2017, he plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts. He was sentenced to prison for 14 days and was one of the first people connected to Trump to be sentenced as part of Mueller’s probe.
Watch above, via CNN.
