Former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone has dropped his effort to fight his conviction for lying to Congress.
President Donald Trump in July granted Stone a commutation, sparing him from having to serve any prison time. But it was not a full pardon, so it did not erase Stone's conviction for misleading Congress about his efforts to discover what WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange planned to do with emails hacked by the Russians from Democrats and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Stone has now notified the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that he is dropping his appeal, formally ending any further proceedings in the case.
In a statement on his website, Stone Cold Truth, Stone said he made the decision reluctantly but decided "it would be impossible for me to ever get a fair hearing" from the D.C. court of appeals.
And even if he continued the appeal and succeeded in having his conviction overturned, the government could try to prosecute him again. He said the case could simply be sent back to the judge who handled his case from the beginning, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Stone said she proved "over and over again in my case that she simply cannot and will not ever permit me to have a fair trial in her courtroom."
Stone also said he could not justify having to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue the appeal. "It is time for me to move on with my life with my family, friends, and supporters," he said.
