Donald Trump Says He Hasn’t Thought About Pardoning Roger Stone
Roger Stone was found guilty of all seven charges against him in November. Before the verdict, Stone reportedly asked President Donald Trump to grant him a pardon through InfoWars’ Alex Jones. Unfortunately for Stone, his efforts haven’t paid off as Trump claims that he has yet to consider pardoning the controversial Republican strategist, The Hill reports.
“I hadn’t thought of it,” Trump said when asked about the possibility by reporters in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I think it’s very tough what they did to Roger Stone compared to what they do to other people on their side,” Trump continued.
Stone was convicted of charges that include lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a congressional inquiry as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Along with Stone, Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was charged in connection to the investigation.
According to Trump, Stone and Flynn were “hit very hard” by the investigation.
“I’ve known Roger over the years, he’s a nice guy. A lot of people like him. And he got hit very hard, as did Gen. Flynn and as did a lot of other people. Now they’re finding out it was all a big hoax.”
Trump claims that Stone was only involved in his 2016 campaign at the beginning before he announced his run for president. The real estate mogul also told reporters that his campaign was the target of “dirty cops” and said that someday he hopes “getting rid of them” will be one of his “greatest achievements.”
BREAKING: Roger Stone’s daughter Adria petitions @realDonaldTrump to pardon her dad pic.twitter.com/oRp0g1GVOx
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) November 16, 2019
Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz’s 476-page report into the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s campaign revealed numerous abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process. In the wake of the report, Trump has attacked the FBI for allegedly targeting his campaign and suggested they were indeed spying on it. Although Horowitz concluded that the FBI was warranted to start the investigation, Trump and his allies — including Attorney General William Barr — continue to suggest that the inquiry was initiated on a partisan basis.
Others have also attacked the investigation following the release of the IG report. American journalist Glenn Greenwald said in a piece for The Intercept that the media played a role in supporting the FBI claims about the investigation prior to the release of Horotwitz’s report. He noted the “highly dangerous trend” of such outlets not just “blindly relying on the claims of security state agents” as they did during the Iraq War but employing them in their newsrooms.
