Tag: Trump wants to use the courts to punish people who disagree with him

Trump confidant Roger Stone leaped over thousands of inmates seeking clemency

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence — over the objections of some aides and without the involvement of his administration’s pardon office — allowed an old friend to jump to the front of the slowest and longest line of federal inmates seeking mercy in decades.

The grant of clemency to Stone is one of only 36 Trump has granted, with 180 denied. After more than three years in office, Trump’s six predecessors had acted on hundreds or thousands of petitions for clemency.

Stone is emblematic of the very few people to receive clemency from Trump, with most being political allies who appealed directly to the White House instead of following Justice Department protocol. Continue reading.

In Commuting Stone’s Sentence, Trump Goes Where Nixon Would Not

New York Times logoSenator Mitt Romney called the commutation an act of “unprecedented, historic corruption.” Attorney General William P. Barr privately argued against clemency for the president’s friend.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has said he learned lessons from President Richard M. Nixon’s fall from grace, but in using the power of his office to keep his friend and adviser Roger J. Stone Jr.out of prison he has now crossed a line that even Mr. Nixon in the depths of Watergate dared not cross.

For months, senior advisers warned Mr. Trump that it would be politically self-destructive if not ethically inappropriate to grant clemency to Mr. Stone, who was convicted of lying to protect the president. Even Attorney General William P. Barr, who had already overruled career prosecutors to reduce Mr. Stone’s sentence, argued against commutation in recent weeks, officials said.

But in casting aside their counsel on Friday, Mr. Trump indulged his own sense of grievance over precedent to reward an ally who kept silent. Once again, he challenged convention by intervening in the justice system undermining investigators looking into him and his associates, just days after the Supreme Court ruled that he went too far in claiming “absolute immunity” in two other inquiries. Continue reading.

Robert Mueller: Roger Stone remains a convicted felon, and rightly so

Washington Post logoRobert S. Mueller III served as special counsel for the Justice Department from 2017 to 2019.

The work of the special counsel’s office — its report, indictments, guilty pleas and convictions — should speak for itself. But I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office. The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.

Russia’s actions were a threat to America’s democracy. It was critical that they be investigated and understood. By late 2016, the FBI had evidence that the Russians had signaled to a Trump campaign adviser that they could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to the Democratic candidate. And the FBI knew that the Russians had done just that: Beginning in July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails stolen by Russian military intelligence officers from the Clinton campaign. Other online personas using false names — fronts for Russian military intelligence — also released Clinton campaign emails.

Following FBI Director James B. Comey’s termination in May 2017, the acting attorney general named me as special counsel and directed the special counsel’s office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The order specified lines of investigation for us to pursue, including any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign. One of our cases involved Stone, an official on the campaign until mid-2015 and a supporter of the campaign throughout 2016. Stone became a central figure in our investigation for two key reasons: He communicated in 2016 with individuals known to us to be Russian intelligence officers, and he claimed advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ release of emails stolen by those Russian intelligence officers. Continue reading.

Romney calls Stone commutation “historic corruption”

Axios logoSen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Saturday tweeted a scathing response to President Trump’s Friday night commutation of former associate Roger Stone’s prison sentence, calling the move “[u]nprecedented, historic corruption.”

Why it matters: Romney has emerged as the party’s most prominent Trump critic. He sent shockwaves through Washington after announcing he would vote to convict Trump in the impeachment trial — becoming the only Senate Republican to break ranks and vote for the president’s removal from office. Now he is the first major GOP lawmaker to condemn Trump’s Friday night call regarding Stone.

What they’re saying: Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) wrote on Saturday afternoon: “The president clearly has the legal and constitutional authority to grant clemency for federal crimes. However, this authority should be used judiciously and very rarely by any president. While I understand the frustration with the badly flawed Russia-collusion investigation, in my view, commuting Roger Stone’s sentence is a mistake.”

  • “He was duly convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a congressional investigation conducted by a Republican-led committee. Earlier this week Attorney General Bill Barr stated he thought Mr. Stone’s prosecution was ‘righteous’ and ‘appropriate’ and the sentence he received was ‘fair.’ Any objections to Mr. Stone’s conviction and trial should be resolved through the appeals process.” Continue reading.