U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson's denial of Roger Stone's motion to delay his surrender date at a federal prison by two months cited his efforts to intimidate her and jurors during proceedings in his case, according to an opinion unsealed Monday.

Jackson late last week denied Stone's motion to push his June 30th report date until Sept. 3 over the COVID-19 pandemic, instead ordering him to remain in home confinement for two weeks before surrendering to authorities on July 14 to serve a 40-month sentence.

In the opinion unsealed on Monday, Jackson noted there are no positive tests for the virus at the correctional facility where Stone will be housed. She also said in similar cases where the DOJ did not oppose a motion to delay a surrender date, those defendants were not "convicted of threatening anyone, and there is no indication that either failed to abide by conditions of release at any time."

"By contrast, Mr. Stone was convicted of threatening a witness, and throughout the course of these criminal proceedings, the court has been forced to address his repeated attempts to intimidate, and to stoke potentially violent sentiment against, an array of participants in the case, including individuals involved in the investigation, the jurors, and the court," Jackson wrote.

Prosecutors charged Stone with trying to prevent his associate, Randy Credico, from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee by threatening Credico and his dog.

Jackson issued gag orders to Stone at several stages of his criminal proceedings, after he posted an image on Instagram depicting her with a crosshairs in the corner, which Stone apologized for, and again after he posted on Instagram about court filings in his case. The gag orders were lifted at his sentencing in February.

In related proceedings over a motion to unseal juror questionnaires in Stone's case, the jurors for his trial told Jackson in April that some of them have been threatened and others fear harassment if they were to be publicly identified, especially after President Donald Trump began tweeting about Stone's jury.

The district judge also said Stone "has already received a reprieve of the recommended length through the good graces of the Bureau of Prisons, an agency within the Department of Justice." A Justice Department filing last week showed that bureau authorities pushed the report date after Stone's attorneys flagged medical issues that could be exacerbated by the virus.

Pushback

Stone's attorney Seth Ginsberg on Monday pushed back against Jackson's rationale, saying she "knew of the nature of Stone's charges and his prior bail issues at the time that it released him on bail following his conviction and again following sentencing." "[I]f the court believed he posed a danger, it would have remanded him," he continued. "Plainly the court did not believe that he posed a danger then and it has not made a finding that he poses a danger now." He also noted that two other defendants in the cases referenced in court filings were sentenced at the same time as Stone, and do not have to surrender until late August or early September.

"That Stone received a previous extension of his surrender date should have no bearing on the issue," Ginsberg said. "The same or greater danger to his health exists now as it did when his surrender date was previously extended from April 23 to June 30."

Stone filed the unopposed motion to delay his surrender date in federal court the same day one of the former prosecutors on the longtime GOP operative's case alleged he and other line prosecutors were told to cut Stone "a break" in his sentencing recommendation due to Stone's ties to President Donald Trump.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. told Jackson in a court-ordered brief last week that they did not oppose the motion due to a department policy adopted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and not because Stone was receiving any special treatment.

Jackson, in the opinion unsealed Monday, said it was a "salutary policy, and judges and defendants in this courthouse and others will welcome its continued evenhanded application."

However, she said it had not been invoked for all defendants seeking compassionate release as DOJ had opposed some of those motions because those defendants' conditions that could make them more susceptible to COVID-19 were "in check." The judge added that Stone's condition "appears to be–as it has been for some time–medically controlled."

"At the end of the day, the guiding principle must be that Mr. Stone is entitled to no more and no less consideration than any other similarly situated convicted felon," Jackson wrote.

Stone was found guilty last year on all counts brought forward by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III, including lying to the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation and witness tampering.

The already high-profile case sparked even further controversy when Main Justice intervened on the sentence recommendation for Stone, filing a second memo recommending Jackson sentence him to an unspecified period of incarceration but less than the seven to nine years laid out by the original trial team. All four career prosecutors resigned from the case as a result, and one, Jonathan Kravis, quit the Justice Department entirely.

One of those attorneys, former Mueller prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, testified to the House Judiciary Committee last week that he was told political motivations played a role in the Stone sentencing debacle and other DOJ lawyers said then-acting U.S. attorney Tim Shea was "afraid of the president."

Stone is appealing his conviction and an judgement from Jackson denying him a new trial, after he argued anti-Trump social media posts from his jury's foreperson made her biased against him. Jackson said a sentiment against Trump did not mean the juror could not rule fairly in Stone's case, and rejected arguments from Stone's lawyers that the juror lied on her questionnaire.

Trump has repeatedly teased a potential pardon for his longtime ally, but has not formally committed to issuing any type of clemency for Stone.