Roger Stone gets 40-month federal prison sentence ... but will he ever actually serve it?

As reported in this Politico piece, headlined "Roger Stone was sentenced Thursday to just more than three years in prison, a decision that raises immediate questions about whether President Donald Trump will pardon his longtime political confidant for what the president has decried as a miscarriage of justice." Here is more about notable sentencing:

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson handed down Stone’s 40-month sentence in a packed Washington, D.C., courtroom after spending more than two hours ticking through the twisted history of his case... "The problem is nothing about this case was a joke,” Jackson said moments before sentencing Stone. “It wasn't funny. It wasn't a stunt and it wasn't a prank.”

Stone, who passed on a chance to address the courtroom, stood silently with his attorneys for nearly 45 minutes while the judge explained the reasoning behind her sentence. The punishment, she said, grew in large part from the severity of his attempts to stymie the Russia probe, violations of a gag order limiting his speech during the pre-trial proceedings and for making a threat to the judge through social media. “He was not prosecuted for standing up for the president,” Jackson added in her closing remarks. “He was prosecuted for covering up for the president.”

Jackson’s sentence for Stone — among the most severe to-date in a case originating from special counsel Robert Mueller — came a week after his potential punishment triggered a furor at the Justice Department. Stone’s case has become a flashpoint for broader concerns about political meddling in high-profile legal cases....

Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, jumped at the chance to press one of the newly-assigned prosecutors, John Crabb, about the issue as he delivered the government’s final comments. “I want to apologize to the court for the confusion the government caused with respect to sentencing,” Crabb said.... Under questioning by Jackson, Crabb confirmed that the original recommendation was approved by a former aide to Barr who was recently installed as U.S. Attorney in Washington, Tim Shea.

Crabb said the confusion stemmed from miscommunication between Barr and Shea, but Crabb declined to elaborate. When the judge asked whether Crabb wrote the revised recommendation, he demurred again, saying that — despite his earlier comments — he was not permitted to discuss “internal deliberations.” While Trump has denounced the decision to prosecute Stone, Crabb took a contrary position, echoing comments Barr made in an interview last week, where he called the prosecution of Stone “righteous.”...

Without mentioning any names, the judge suggested that some critics of the original recommendation seemed unusually moved by Stone’s plight, even though the guidelines that DOJ followed — first adopted in the 1980s to rein in judges’ discretion — sometimes produce extraordinarily long sentences.

“For those of you new to this and who woke up last week to the fact that the...guidelines are harsh, I can assure you that defense attorneys and many judges have been making that point for a long time, but we don’t usually succeed in getting the government to agree,” Jackson scoffed.

Later, Jackson noted that the government’s decision to argue that Stone should get less prison time than federal sentencing guidelines recommend was a definite deviation from standard practices adopted by the Trump administration. “It’s not just a question of good faith, but whether it was fully consistent with current DOJ policy,” she said. “The current policy of this Department of Justice is to charge and prosecute the most serious offense available in order to get the highest guideline level.”

Crabb acknowledged that is “generally” DOJ’s current policy and that line prosecutors are not permitted to deviate from it without approval from higher-ups. And while Trump has suggested the judge has been cruel towards his allies like former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Crabb came to the judge’s defense Thursday, saying “the government has the utmost confidence” in her, and praising her “thoughtful analysis and fair sentences” in related cases....

The judge also said that when making her decision, she took into account Stone's social media attacks on the court during his prosecution that raised security concerns at the courthouse. "This is intolerable to the administration of justice and the courts should not sit idly by, shrug its shoulders and just say it's 'Roger being Roger,’” Jackson said.

Stone, 67, has sought to avoid any prison time. During Thursday’s hearings, his defense argued he had no criminal record and should get a reprieve because he’s a family man about to become a great-grandfather. “Consider the full scope of the person who stands before you in sentencing," said Seth Ginsberg, a new defense lawyer brought on for sentencing. “Mr. Stone has many admirable qualities,” Ginsberg added, urging Jackson to look beyond the "larger than life persona" Stone plays on TV. He noted Stone's charity work to help veterans, animal welfare and NFL players suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

Earlier this week, Judge Jackson indicated that Stone would not have to start serving his sentence until she rules on his motion for a new trial. I expect that Prex Trump will be inclined to hold back on any possible clemency action at least until that motion is resolved and Stone faces the prospect of heading to prison. (As some may recall, Prez GW Bush did not commute Lewis Libby's prison sentence until the DC Circuit denied his request for bail pending appeal.)

Prior related posts:

• For Roger Stone, federal prosecutors advocate for within-guideline sentence of 7.3 to 9 years in prison ... which Prez Trump calls a "miscarriage of justice!" 
• DOJ now says "sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months [for Roger Stone] would be reasonable under the circumstances"  
• Would it be improper for a President to write a character letter for a defendant facing federal sentencing?
• Just some (of lots and lots of) commentary about Roger Stone(d) federal sentencing process 
• Over 1000 former DOJ employees calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign
• Roger Stone case generating some useful reflections on federal sentencing challenges and problems and lessons