“[Of course], Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of Roger Stone, a longtime friend and former campaign adviser who was to spend three years and four months in jail for crimes related to the Russia investigation.
“In a statement released on Friday evening, the White House denounced the prosecution of Stone on charges stemming from ‘the Russia Hoax’ investigation. ‘Roger Stone has already suffered greatly,’ the statement reads. ‘He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!’
“Stone, 67, was convicted in November 2019 of obstructing a congressional investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. He was sentenced in February to 40 months and was due to report to prison on Tuesday.
“The commutation does not erase Stone’s felony convictions the way a pardon would, but it allows Stone to avoid setting foot in prison for his crimes. Echoing the language that Trump has used in tweets and speeches, the official White House statement attacked the ‘witch hunts’ led by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections…
“While not unexpected, Trump’s move to spare Stone from prison will only increase alarm among critics concerned that the Trump administration has interfered with the justice system in order to shield the president and his friends.
“In February, Trump commuted the 14-year sentence of Rod Blagojevich, a former Democratic Illinois governor accused of trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. He also offered clemency for allies including the Maricopa county, Arizona, sheriff Joe Arpaio, who disobeyed a judge’s order to stop racial profiling immigrants, and the conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who was convicted of campaign finance violations.
“Last month, Trump fired Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney who had prosecuted the president’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and was investigating Rudy Giuliani – another Trump lawyer. And in May, the justice department dismissed its case against the former national security adviser Michael Flynn after Trump complained that prosecutors were acting unfairly.
“‘With Trump, there are now two systems of justice in America: one for Trump’s criminal friends and one for everyone else,’ said Adam Schiff, a Democratic US representative of California and the lead prosecutor in the president’s impeachment trial, in reaction to the news. ‘Regardless of our political parties or differences, we all know this is disgraceful,’ said Val Demings, a Democratic US representative of Florida. ‘Pray that our republic will endure.’
“The commuting of Stone’s sentence comes after the US attorney general, William Barr, revised prosecutors’ original recommendation that Stone serve seven to nine years in federal prison. Trump had railed that the conviction ‘should be thrown out’ and called the justice department’s initial sentencing recommendation ‘horrible and very unfair.’ Following the reversal, the entire prosecution team working on the case resigned.
“Although the White House did not dispute that Stone had committed the crimes for which he was convicted, its statement argued that Stone would not have been charged ‘if the special counsel had not been pursuing an absolutely baseless investigation.’ Stone was celebrating in Florida with conservative friends, according to the AP. He told reporters there were ‘too many people opening bottles of champagne here.’” (The Guardian).
The Associated Press contributed to this report
"Trump voters need to ask themselves – what else does Trump have to do to our livelihood, health, safety, and dignity before you say – 'no more!'" -Ralph Nader
ReplyDelete"Trump is the sick expression of a dysfunctional political system and mass culture that celebrate the most depraved aspects of human nature—greed, a lust for power, a thirst for adulation and celebrity, a penchant for the manipulation of others, dishonesty, a lack of remorse and a frightening pathology in which reality is ignored. He is the product of our escapist world of constant entertainment. He embodies the mutation of values in American society that has culminated in an enormous cult of the self and the abandonment of the common good…" -Chris Hedges
ReplyDeleteHave you had enough yet?
ReplyDeleteWhen are we going to rebel against his autocratic abuse of presidential power, his constitutional ignorance, his obstruction of justice and concealment, his lawless demagoguery, his pathological narcissism, his grandiose delusions, his anti-social personality disorder, his malignant arrogance, his moral relativism, his white nationalism, his perfidious nationalism, his hateful racism, his infectious nihilism, his outrageous iconoclasm, his ruthless competition, his puerile dereliction, his embarrassing idiocy, his provocative transgressions, his mocking disrespect, his impetuous vulgarity, his sexual predation; his belligerent intimidation, his incessant lying, his obsessive vindictiveness, his hypocritical cowardice, his compulsive xenophobia, his callous misogyny, his insufferable bigotry, his disgusting buffoonery, his histrionic rallying, his dangerous idiocy, his sociopathic bullying, and his blatant cronyism...?
And just like the "good" German people we can say "I didn't know that was happening."
ReplyDeleteFrom Sig Lisowski:
ReplyDeleteStone's sentence commuted and the replacement of the N.E.N.Y. U.S. Attorney General. When you asked where were the good German people that let Hitler and his government exercised his/their authority and duties on behalf of Germany? How did he do all the atrocities before the eyes of the German nation? How do you eliminate those that are hurting Germany? Look around how do you think the herd of the sick, old, brown, illegal and black people? Pandemic anyone? You tell the country you have it all covered and then let the pandemic do the rest. As Hitler said: "...Get rid of the vermin, that are holding back our great nation." We now are where the good German people who "believed " all of the bullshit where. We are still talking rule of law, while the dictatorship is being welded into place. The election will not save us. We will not have them and if we do, only the "right patriotic citizens" will be able to vote. Vote for the man that is making "America great again." People are dying.
-Sig
From Ira Shor:
ReplyDeleteSeven felonies, guilty, no jail time, friends in high places payoff loyal underlings. Trump released this touchy news of pardoning a felon friend Friday evening, which is known in mass media as "the bad news chasm," because Friday pm/sat am is the smallest news audience of the week, the best time to announce news that will provoke bad press or damage your reputation, to suppress its circulation. Pay close attention to all the news coming out Friday pm and you can see how often it issued by the powerful, by corporations, etc.
-Ira