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Local Republican political strategist announces founding of Roger Stone pardon committee

Posted at 2:01 PM, Feb 12, 2020
and last updated 2020-02-12 14:01:41-05

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A local Republican political strategist and former campaign adviser to President Trump is asking the president to pardon Roger Stone.

Michael Caputo announced the founding of a committee that he says will encourage the president to pardon Stone.

"You don't have to look any further than the federal prosecutors who railroaded Roger to know this prosecution was out of control," Caputo said. "They called for seven to nine years of incarceration - after misleading their DoJ bosses - for charges which, as the President tweeted, a connected insider served only two months." Caputo says the investigation into Stone was a "political hit job."

According to Zeppelin Communications, The Pardon Roger J. Stone Committee is composed of friends close to the Stone family. The group is raising money for Stone's legal fees. Caputo, who was named chairman of the group, says the committee has collected 120,000 signatures in four days.

Stone was convicted in November of a seven-count indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election.

Federal prosecutors in Washington asked a judge to sentence Stone to seven to nine years in prison. However, the Justice Department recently backed away from its sentencing recommendation for Trump confidant Stone. A department official told The New York Times that both the sentencing recommendation and the president’s tweet took officials at Justice Department headquarters by surprise. The recommendation was higher than what the U.S. attorney’s office had told Justice Department officials it would suggest, according to the official.