Top Pentagon official resigns at Trump’s request

WASHINGTON: A top Pentagon official resigned Wednesday at the request of Donald Trump after becoming indirectly tied to the Ukraine scandal that led to the US president´s impeachment. John Rood, the Pentagon´s top policy official, certified that Ukraine had made sufficient reforms to be eligible to receive $250 million in military aide.

That undercut Trump´s argument that the funds had been withheld out of concern over corruption rather than to pressure Kiev to investigate his political rivals, as Democrats alleged. No reason was given for the president´s request for Rood to resign, but it follows similar White House actions against national security officials who testified about Ukraine in the impeachment hearings. In recent months, however, reports have surfaced that Rood´s abrasive personality had made him enemies within the Pentagon and the White House National Security Council.

In a letter to the president, Rood said he had learned from Defense Secretary Mark Esper “that you requested my resignation from serving as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. “Senior administration officials appointed by the president serve at the pleasure of the president, and therefore, as you have requested, I am providing my resignation effective February 28, 2020,” he wrote. Trump thanked Rood for his service in a tweet linked to another tweet by a Bloomberg reporter that said the Pentagon official had faced pressure to resign “from some who had lost confidence in his ability to carry out Trump agenda.”

Trump adviser Roger Stone to be sentenced for lying to congress, witness tampering: President Donald Trump’s long-time adviser Roger Stone on Thursday arrived at the federal courthouse where he is set to be sentenced after being convicted on charges including lying to a congressional panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, a case that has roiled the Justice Department and drawn Trump’s ire.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson is scheduled to sentence Stone, whose career as a Republican operative has stretched from the Watergate scandal era of the early 1970s to Trump’s campaign four years ago, at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).

Wearing sunglasses and a fedora, Stone walked past a giant inflatable rat — a common prop in street protests — and a sign calling for his pardon as he arrived at the courthouse. One onlooker shouted: “Traitor!”

A jury of nine women and three men convicted Stone, 67, on Nov. 15 on all seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.The charges stemmed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that detailed Russian meddling in the 2016 election to boost Trump’s candidacy. Stone was one of several Trump associates charged in Mueller’s inquiry.

Trump, who on Tuesday granted clemency to prominent convicted white-collar criminals including financier Michael Milken and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, has sidestepped questions about whether he will pardon Stone. “We’re going to see what happens,” Trump said on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Stone lied to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks, the website that released damaging emails about Trump’s Democratic election rival Hillary Clinton that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded were stolen by Russian hackers.