Roger Stone requests delay of prison start date, citing pandemic concerns

Roger Stone on Tuesday asked a federal judge for a months-long delay to the start of his prison term, saying that underlying health issues placed him at “heightened risk of serious medical consequences” if exposed to the coronavirus while in prison.

Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump’s, has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for lying to Congress and witness tampering and is scheduled to be taken into federal custody June 30.

But in a filing submitted Tuesday to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an attorney for Stone asked that the date be extended to Sept. 3.

“This motion is based on the exceptional circumstances arising from the serious and possibly deadly risk he would face in the close confines of a Bureau of Prisons facility, based on his age and medical conditions,” attorney Seth Ginsberg wrote on behalf of Stone, a 67-year-old right-wing political provocateur.

Stone’s purported medical issues were described in a supplemental brief filed under seal.

The request is the latest twist in a long-running legal saga that saw Stone convicted and sentenced for crimes that stemmed from his efforts to provide the Trump campaign inside information about WikiLeaks in 2016.