Judge demands answers on the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s prison sentence

When Roger Stone publicly hinted on Friday night that he was about to leak criminal dirt on Donald Trump, and Trump responded by almost immediately announcing that he was commuting Stone’s prison sentence, it set off all kinds of questions about the legality and constitutionality of what transpired. Now it turns out Trump may not have even really commuted Stone’s sentence.

It turns out Donald Trump and his White House never actually filed or released any documents commuting Stone’s sentence. Instead all that stands is the announcement to the media that the sentence had been commuted – which carries no legal weight. Judge Amy Berman Jackson is now giving Trump just one day to turn over the actual paperwork for the commutation.

This could quickly get interesting. If Donald Trump did indeed sign an executive order commuting Roger Stone’s sentence, why didn’t he bother to release it? What’s he trying to hide? And if Trump didn’t sign anything official, was he merely pretending he commuted Stone’s sentence? Unless and until Trump gives the judge proof that he’s commuted Stone’s sentence, she can still send Stone to prison. What’s going on here?