Donald Trump has commuted former adviser Roger Stone’s sentence. This means Stone won’t have to serve any time in prison. Stone was set to report to prison on Tuesday for lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing the House’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Commuting Stone’s sentence allows Stone to plead the Fifth if called to testify against Trump.
It’s case law that was used when President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s testimony. (tagging @Shewmaker)
“President Bush's decision to commute Scooter Libby's may seem like some kind of compromise between a full pardon and sending Libby to jail.
“It may be more sinister than that. Since Libby's conviction stands, Libby will almost certainly continue his appeal to have his conviction overturned. His many Republican supporters will probably defray the costs of the appeal so it will cost Libby nothing.
“Now, with an ongoing criminal appeal, if Libby were called before a Congressional Committee and asked to testify about efforts by the Vice President's and President's offices--including Cheney, Bush and Rove personally--to discredit Joe Wilson and reveal that his wife Valerie Plame worked for the CIA--“Libby can refuse to testify by taking the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. If Bush gave Libby a full criminal pardon, the Fifth Amendment would no longer be applicable and Libby could probably be forced to testify or face jail for contempt of Congress.”
And why doesn’t Trump want Stone to testify?
Unredacted portions of the Mueller report show that Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Michael Cohen told investigators Stone had promised the campaign damaging revelations by WikiLeaks.
The information was released in June following a lawsuit by BuzzFeed News:
“In July 2016, political consultant Roger Stone told Trump as well as several campaign advisers that he had spoken with Julian Assange and that WikiLeaks would be publishing the documents in a matter of days. Stone told the then-candidate via speakerphone that he "did not know what the content of the materials was," according to the newly unveiled portions of the report, and Trump responded "oh good, alright" upon hearing the news. WikiLeaks published a trove of some 20,000 emails Russians hacked from the Democratic National Committee on July 22 of that year.
“The new revelations are the strongest indication to date that Trump and his closest advisers were aware of outside efforts to hurt Clinton’s electoral chances, and that Stone played a direct role in communicating that situation to the Trump campaign. Trump has publicly denied being aware of any information being relayed between WikiLeaks and his advisers.”
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Trump, plumbing new depths every week.
lawless, and only looking out for himself and his buddies.
I got a pit in my stomach when I read this yesterday. I can only imagine what this will do to our corruption perception around the world (higher number is better).
How will Utah conservatives respond to this latest attack on the President from Senator Mitt?
It is too bad the Republican nominee cannot be Mitt or any number of candidates that are not despised by half the nation like Trump is.
This is a topic for another thread, which I’ll actually go more in-depth on, but I think Biden could eke out a win in Utah.
Well, this isn’t the first questionable pardon for sure. What makes this unusual is that in most questionable pardons, the president does it at the 11th hour, right before they leave office. This is happening before Trump’s re-election campaign kicks off.
I know. For reals. 😢
You know this is bad when William Barr wants it to be known that he and the Justice Department advised against this.
When you get Robert Mueller to make a statement like this, you know you’ve really screwed up.
I think it goes beyond corruption: it points to our separate justice systems where your treatment by the courts depends on your wealth, race or connections.
please vote him out
What does everyone think: Will this hurt Trump’s re-election odds? I think it will, though by November, this will be old news.
I don’t know what to think in America anymore. It’s as if time has passed me by but in a way I never imagined would happen, because it’s my demographic that think so different than me now.
For example, Tucker Carlson seemed to go off the rails to me and do things my generation would never have done before—smear Purple Heart receiving military officers and the nation’s most respected scientist. And his show received record viewership. I thought it would hurt his ratings, but that and the racism of his lead writer seem to be what my demographic wants now. I never saw this day coming.
Chris, you are not alone, the rest of the world are also wondering what the hell is going on in America.
The world is in a crazy space at the moment, hopefully, the electorate will find a new direction come November.
This is Kennedy during the Cuban missle crisis. This is Trump in the middle of the pandemic. I’m sorry, I just can’t reconcile it.
Night and day difference.
America is going off the rails and desperately needs to get back on track in November. Agreed 💯
