US Prosecutors Request Up to 9 Years in Prison for Trump Associate Roger Stone - Filing

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Former high-level Trump campaign associate Roger Stone was indicted as part of a nearly two-year probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The probe ended last year, finding that the campaign had neither colluded nor conspired in its alleged efforts to defeat Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

US federal prosecutors are requesting a prison term of seven to nine years for Stone who was found guilty of obstructing a probe into foreign election meddling, sentencing guidelines revealed.

In November, a federal jury convicted Stone - who was arrested in January 2019 - for witness tampering and lying to Congress about details of his communications with anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and the release of Democratic emails in the 2016 US presidential election.

Prosecutors said the sentence is appropriate because, in addition to the charges, Stone displayed contempt for the court when the indictment was originally released, according to the document filed on Monday.

Stone was indicted by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who spent nearly two years investigating charges of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Throughout the Mueller investigation, Russia repeatedly denied that its government played a role in the US election, including covert attempts to influence the outcome.

Russian officials have said the allegations were invented to excuse the election loss of Trump’s presidential opponent as well as to deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.