It won’t affect his poll numbers.
If you hate him like I do, you expected this.
If you support him, you think Stone should not have been charged.
Except for Romney, Republicans have not objected to it. Cowards.
On Roger Stone, worth recalling this from unredacted Mueller report.
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 11, 2020
Trump's public statements "support inference that president intended to communicate message that witnesses could be rewarded for refusing to provide testimony adverse to the President"https://t.co/cdwyRzpXwK pic.twitter.com/VKvvb1S6QV
"This is what corruption looks like," says Elie Honig, a former DOJ prosecutor about President Trump commuting the 40-month prison sentence of his friend Roger Stone. "It's hard to think of a more perfect example of self-dealing than that." https://t.co/S5zvEy5hEP pic.twitter.com/5XEsC3gcdL
— CNN (@CNN) July 11, 2020
This statement again attacks the jury foreperson. The judge found zero evidence she acted improperly. In fact, a juror chosen by Stone’s team to testify said the foreperson urged them to take more time to consider a charge on which most had already decided Stone was guilty. https://t.co/xJ4bLOBGoZ
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 11, 2020
I'm annotating the White House's extremely Trumpian statement about the Stone commutation. https://t.co/VMi9nFpuMG
— Philip Bump (@pbump) July 11, 2020
Debunking 12 lies and falsehoods from the White House's statement on Roger Stone's commutation https://t.co/RTmilcllc1 pic.twitter.com/vBghvTXHMh
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 11, 2020
The Special Counsel regulations are intended to insulate an independent prosecutor from the President and his political appointees. But if Trump and Barr can simply undo the work of the Special Counsel, the regs don’t work.
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) July 11, 2020
Congress must pass a new independent counsel statute.
Do not forget the jurors who served honorably in this case and were attacked by the President. They sacrificed months of their lives and dealt with death threats. And now the President has undone their work, making a mockery of our lgl system. https://t.co/gE1Prn3IJ1
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) July 11, 2020
Think about the message that Trump is sending to Russia, other foreign countries and anyone in Trump's circle who might help them interfere in / attack our election.
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) July 11, 2020
Stone is Trump's 36th pardon/commutation, a record low number, by far, for the modern presidency. An unusually high number of these (31/36 by my count), like Stone's, were based on a personal or political connection. Both are forms of abuse of an undoubted presidential power.
— Jack Goldsmith (@jacklgoldsmith) July 11, 2020
In @QuinnipiacPoll last Sept, 56% of Americans said they believe Trump considers himself above the law. 59% of indies & 57% of college+ whites agreed. Would a candidate who thought he had any chance of reaching any swing voters do what Trump just did for #STONE? https://t.co/apgliHZeZr
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) July 11, 2020
Any coverage of the Stone commutation must make clear-this didn’t happen just because Stone is a “friend” of Trump’s. It happened because Stone clearly could have implicated Trump & didn’t & has made very clear that he wasn’t doing so in order to get this benefit. https://t.co/eIIc4ouQzR
— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) July 11, 2020
Trump commuting Stone in exchange for Stone not rolling on Trump is of course a quid pro quo. Is it politically incorrect in these circumstances to remind people, maybe in a whisper, that the Constitution defines “Bribery” as a “high Crime,” automatically an impeachable offense?
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 11, 2020
.@JeffreyToobin on Trump freeing Stone: “This is the most corrupt and cronyistic act in perhaps all of recent history. Nixon at the height of Watergate never pardoned or commuted the sentences of any of the people involved in Watergate. He thought he could never get away with it”
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 11, 2020
I covered the Roger Stone trial gavel to gavel. It wasn’t a complicated case. It always felt larger than Roger Stone. It was about the rule of law and the importance of truth and why that matters. https://t.co/tnunPrvOtG
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) July 11, 2020
Facts:
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) July 11, 2020
— The Trump campaign tried to coordinate with Wikileaks through Roger Stone;
— A jury convicted Stone of lying to Congress to protect the President;
— The President now commutes Stone's sentence, sparing him from prison.
Corruption and abuse of power.
If you're curious what Stone did, here you go. https://t.co/PfACj1RBNR
— Philip Bump (@pbump) July 11, 2020
Paul Manafort–convicted, not in jail. Roger Stone-convicted, term commuted. Mike Flynn-confessed, not in prison. Donald Trump-serial felon, traitor, not even tried.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) July 11, 2020
Attorney General Barr-actively obstructing justice on the President's behalf. We have no justice system in the US.
Trump's statement commuting Stone literally includes a mention of how Stone "is also well known for his outspoken support for President Donald J. Trump." It also includes a mention of the debunked theory that CNN was tipped off about Stone's arrest.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) July 11, 2020
There will be talk that Trump commuting Roger Stone's sentence will "thrill his base." But if so, that can only mean that Trump's base is thrilled by him using his power to exonerate his criminal accomplices. If that's what the claim is supposed to be, let's state it clearly.
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 11, 2020
A “mistake”? A mistake is like when I turn left when I meant to turn right. This is utter corrupt lawlessness. These people should be ashamed as they sit silently by while their leader tries to torch the rule of law to protect himself. https://t.co/DRMcSycPuS
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) July 11, 2020
Sad! 