Roger Stone, former campaign adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives for his criminal trial on charges of lying to Congress, obstructing justice and witness tampering at U.S. District Court in Washington, November 6, 2019. Tom Brenner | Reuters

Outside federal courthouse before sentencing of Roger Stone, Feb. 20, 2020, Kevin Breuninger | CNBC

Stone, 67, was convicted in November of charges linked to his false statements to a House committee about his contacts with the document disclosure group WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election, and his unsuccessful, crude efforts to force an associate, comedian Randy Credico, to endorse those lies. Stone was found guilty of five counts of false statements, and one count each of obstruction of proceedings and witness tampering. The case was one of several lodged against people in Trump's orbit by then-special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump railed against Mueller's probe since it began in 2017, and continued doing so after it ended last summer. Stone's case remained a thorn in Trump's side because it included evidence that suggested that Trump himself had been kept apprised by Stone of Stone's contacts with WikiLeaks in 2016. WikiLeaks that year released a set of emails that had been stolen from John Podesta, the campaign chief for 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as from the Democratic National Committee. The emails, which contained information that was embarrassing to Clinton's campaign and to the DNC, were hacked by Russian agents, the Justice Department and U.S. intelligence agencies have said. Before Election Day, Stone tried to get the emails. Prosecutors said Stone kept Trump's camp aware of what he had learned about WikiLeaks' plans for releasing the emails. But Stone told a House committee the following year that he had no such conversations with the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks. Trump later told Mueller in written answers to questions, "I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with" Stone, "nor do I recall Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with my campaign." Stone, who did not testify at his trial, denied the charges. His lawyers have asked that the judge to sentence him only to probation, with no time in jail or prison. Credico, in a letter to Jackson last month, also asked that Stone not be sentenced to prison, despite Stone having called him "a rat" and "a stoolie" and warning him, "prepare to die." "It is not justice" to send Stone to prison, Credico wrote the judge. "It is cruelty."