In a disjointed and conspiracy-dripping statement, the White House justified the commutation of Roger Stone’s 40 month prison sentence for seven criminal convictions by citing the Deep State, witch hunts, a head juror and Stone’s health.
The statement hit all the major stops of the Trump conspiracy train: “the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years” found nothing in a series of “witch hunts” that ended up convicting Stone for “process-based charges.”
The statement claims, falsely, that the Mueller probe looking into Russian tampering in the 2016 election, and the Trump campaign’s involvement in it, found “no such evidence” and could not charge Stone “for any collusion-related crime.”
[FACT CHECK: The Mueller Report stated that it did not look into “collusion,” but instead investigates the legally-based concept of “conspiracy.” The Report stated that is found “insufficient evidence” to charge the crime, not “no… evidence.”]
The statement challenges the legitimacy of the criminal trial, specifically calling out the foreperson of the juror, saying she “concealed the fact that she is a member of the so-called liberal ‘resistance’ to the Trump Presidency.”
This claim was dismissed by the trial judge, who dismissed a motion by Stone’s legal team to order a retrial before sentencing. The judge found no evidence of bias in the deliberations of the jury.
Finally, the statement cites the health concerns the 67-year-old Stone would face in prison, citing nonspecifically that he “would be put at serious medical risk in prison.”
Trump called Stone to inform him of the commutation, and Stone said he had a specific reason for not granting him a pardon.
In addressing the media, Stone stated “[Trump] said you understand I have the option, I have the authority to grant a pardon or commute your sentence. He said that you should understand that a pardon would be final and that in accepting a pardon, you are accepting guilt, and I would rather see you fight this out, which is why I’m commuting your sentence.”