Roger Stone just made Donald Trump’s life a lot more difficult
With Roger Stone set to report to prison in just a few days, we’ve seen reports this past week that Bill Barr has been trying to talk Donald Trump out of pardoning Stone or commuting his sentence. Moreover, Barr seems to be the one leaking this to the media, as he tries to distance himself from whatever Trump is about to do. Now, in what may prove to be a mistake on his part, Stone just spoke up and made things a lot more complicated for Trump.
Howard Fineman of NBC News just tweeted this:
Just had a long talk with #RogerStone. He says he doesn’t want a pardon (which implies guilt) but a commutation, and says he thinks #Trump will give it to him. “He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t.”
— howardfineman (@howardfineman) July 10, 2020
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If this sounds to you like Roger Stone is threatening to flip on Donald Trump, and that Trump would therefore be giving Stone a bribe by commuting his sentence, you’re not the only one. Former SDNY prosecutor Mimi Rocah tweeted in response that Stone may be committing a crime by seeking a commutation in this manner, and that Trump may be committing a crime if he grants it.
Donald Trump has become so erratic, and seemingly so clueless about what’s good or bad for his reelection prospects, it’s difficult to predict what he’ll do with regard to Roger Stone. But we were already expecting there to be a court challenge if Trump bails Stone out – and now Stone’s words today could end up getting any such commutation thrown out in court.
