Roger Stone: Critics blast Trump for commuting ex-adviser's jail term

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53373128

 

Mr Biden's spokesman Bill Russo said Mr Trump could not be shamed and could only be stopped at the ballot box.

"President Trump has once again abused his power, releasing this commutation on a Friday night, hoping to yet again avoid scrutiny as he lays waste to the norms and the values that make our country a shining beacon to the rest of the world," he said.

House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff condemned Mr Trump's clemency.

"With this commutation," said the top Democratic lawmaker, "Trump makes clear that there are two systems of justice in America: one for his criminal friends, and one for everyone else."

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said it showed Donald Trump was the most corrupt president in history.

Sen. Mitt Romney Calls Trump's Decision to Commute Roger Stone's Sentence 'Historic Corruption'

https://time.com/5865809/mitt-romney-trump-roger-stone/

On Saturday morning, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney became the first Congressional Republican so far to speak out against President Donald Trump’s Friday night decision to commute the sentence of his longtime associate Roger Stone. Stone had been sentenced to 40 months in prison for multiple felonies including lying to Congress and attempting to obstruct the Congressional investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Law and Order

Jeff Mason on Trump commuting Stone's sentence: 'Bringing this up again may in some ways be positive' for POTUS

https://www.foxnews.com/media/jeff-mason-donald-trump-commuting-roger-stone-sentence

Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason reacted Saturday to President Trump commuting Roger Stone's sentence, saying there will more more "fireworks" regarding the president's actions.

"This is his Broadway, really, right now of responding to what he thinks was unfair the entire time related to Robert Mueller's investigation of the Russia probe and specifically to his friend and confident Roger Stone," Mason said on "America's News HQ."

"I think it is important to remember that Stone was convicted by a jury, and so in terms of the political risk for the president, this does come at a time when the president himself has been focusing on a law and order response to the protests around the country, emphasizing himself as a law and order president."

Mueller defends Stone prosecution and says 'his conviction stands' in Washington Post op-ed

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/11/politics/robert-mueller-defends-roger-stone-prosecution/index.html

 Former special counsel Robert Mueller, in a very rare move, has written an op-ed for The Washington Post defending his office's prosecution of Roger Stone and saying he is still a convicted felon and "rightly so" in light of President Donald Trump's commutation of Stone.

"Congress also investigated and sought information from Stone. A jury later determined he lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks' releases. He in fact updated senior campaign officials repeatedly about WikiLeaks. And he tampered with a witness, imploring him to stonewall Congress," Mueller wrote in the op-ed posted Saturday evening.

Trump Commutes Roger Stone’s Prison Sentence: What You Need To Know

Trump corruptly commutes Roger Stone sentence. Can it be undone by next president or the courts?

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Tucker Carlson's top writer resigns after secretly posting racist and sexist remarks in online forum

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/10/media/tucker-carlson-writer-blake-neff/index.html

Neff worked at Fox News for nearly four years and was Carlson's top writer. Previously, he was a reporter at The Daily Caller, a conservative news outlet that Carlson co-founded. In a recent article in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Neff said, "Anything [Carlson is] reading off the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me." He also acknowledged the show's influence, telling the magazine, "We're very aware that we do have that power to sway the conversation, so we try to use it responsibly."

During the years that Neff wrote for him at Fox, Carlson has hosted one of the most influential shows on cable news. In the last quarter, Carlson had not only the highest-rated program in cable news, but the highest-rated show in the history of cable news. Carlson also counts President Trump among his most loyal viewers. On multiple occasions, the President has tweeted out videos of Carlson's program. Which is to say, the scripts that Neff likely helped write and shape were being shared by the President of the United States.

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Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence. Here's why he did it

House Democrats promise investigations, legislation after Trump commutes Roger Stone

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-democrats-investigations-legislation-trump-commutes-stone

House Democrats reacted furiously to President Trump’s Friday move to commute the prison sentence of political operative Roger Stone -- demanding an investigation and even legislation to stop similar commutations happening again.

“President Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of top campaign advisor Roger Stone, who could directly implicate him in criminal misconduct, is an act of staggering corruption,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement on Saturday.

 

The White House announced Friday that Trump has signed an Executive Grant of Clemency for the colorful political operative, who was sentenced to more than three years in prison after he was convicted last year on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress in relation to FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

 

“Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Friday night. “There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia.  Such collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to accept the result of the 2016 election.”

Trump commutes Roger Stone's sentence

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/10/politics/trump-stone-prison-clemency/index.html

 President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend Roger Stone, who was convicted of crimes that included lying to Congress in part, prosecutors said, to protect the President. The announcement came just days before Stone was set to report to a federal prison in Georgia.

Trump's decision to commute the sentence of his friend and political adviser is the crescendo of a months-long effort to rewrite the history of the Mueller investigation. This has included selective declassification of intelligence materials, a ramped-up counter-investigation into the origins of the Russia probe and attempts to drop the case against Michael Flynn. The President has broad constitutional power to pardon or commute sentences. But Trump is unlike almost any other president in how he's used the power proactively to save political allies.