Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, handed down Roger Stone's sentence today: 40 months.  That's 40 months longer than anything done to James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Hillary Clinton, James Clapper, or the other Deep State actors, but it's significantly less than the 7–9 years Mueller's rabid crew sought for him.  To offset the more lenient sentence, Jackson went on an anti-Trump rant.

Roger Stone is not an appealing character, but even unappealing characters can get railroaded.  The broad outlines of what happened are that James Comey inveigled Trump into appointing Robert Mueller as an "independent prosecutor" charged with investigating whether Trump conspired with Russia to win the election; that Mueller and his attack dogs knew within days of beginning the investigation that the foundational accusations were lies; that the Mueller team nevertheless dragged the investigation out for two years and $35 million, all the while trying to find something against Trump; and that, along the way, the Mueller team set out to ruin anyone close to Trump, tangling all of them up with process crimes and threats of personal destruction.

Roger Stone was one of those caught in the tainted Mueller net.  He told lies that are the normal currency in Washington, D.C.  People such as Comey; Clinton (both Clintons, actually); McCabe; Brennan; Clapper; and others told similar lies but nevertheless were able to walk away with TV gigs and book deals.  He also fulminated at another witness, issuing threats and asking him to lie, demands and threats so impotent that the witness considered them laughable.

When the FBI arrested Stone, instead of talking to Stone's lawyer to arrange for him to turn himself in, the FBI did a pre-dawn SWAT raid, with CNN cameras conveniently located nearby.  Then Mueller's attorneys put Stone in front of Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee.

Interestingly enough, before Trump's presidency, Berman was a slightly left-leaning but otherwise reasonably even-handed judge.  Sure, she ruled that the Catholic Diocese of Washington had to provide contraceptives under Obamacare, but she also ruled against the National Labor Relations Board, the Obama-era EPA, and U.S. rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., who got a 30-month sentence, for misusing campaign funds.

When Trump came into office, though, Jackson became a resistance judge.  She dismissed a wrongful death complaint against Hillary brought by parents of two of the men who died in Benghazi.  She placed Paul Manafort in solitary confinement, muzzled Manafort's and Rick Gates's attorneys, and allowed special counsel to walk away from a plea deal.  She's been equally draconian with Roger Stone, placing gag orders on him and his attorneys and insisting on sentencing him before conducting a hearing about the jury foreperson who lied about the fact that she was a rabid Trump- and Stone-hater.

It should be no surprise, then, that Jackson used the sentencing hearing to go off on a rant about Trump:

[S]he turned his sentencing hearing into a stunning rebuke not just of Stone but of the president himself, saying the prosecution was not brought by 'political enemies,' and that there was no 'anti-Trump cabal' at the hear[ing] of the case.

'He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president, he was prosecuted for covering up for the president,' she said.

'There was nothing unfair, phony or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution.'

Democrats pointed to Trump's earlier tweets against Jackson to justify her partisan attack:

[S]he turned his sentencing hearing into a stunning rebuke not just of Stone but of the president himself, saying the prosecution was not brought by 'political enemies,' and that there was no 'anti-Trump cabal' at the hear of the case.

'He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president, he was prosecuted for covering up for the president,' she said.

'There was nothing unfair, phony or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution.'

Democrats pointed to Trump's earlier tweets against Jackson to justify her partisan attack:

Is this the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking! https://t.co/Fe7XkepJNN

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2020

What both Jackson and the Democrats fail to understand is that Trump is a political figure who does not need to appear impartial.  Jackson, however, is a judge, and the entire basis of trust in the judicial system is the belief that judges are impartial.  Jackson exploded that myth.

Trump-the-politician, meanwhile, gets the final word as to this political witch hunt:

“They say Roger Stone lied to Congress.” @CNN OH, I see, but so did Comey (and he also leaked classified information, for which almost everyone, other than Crooked Hillary Clinton, goes to jail for a long time), and so did Andy McCabe, who also lied to the FBI! FAIRNESS?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020