The question in the title of this post was my first thought upon seeing this news piece headlined "Trump tweet fuels speculation of Stone pardon: The tweet came after a judge ruled Stone would report to prison in July." Here are the details:
President Donald Trump further fueled speculation Saturday morning that he plans to pardon longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone.
After a judge on Friday gave Stone a surrender date of July 14 -- he had sought to report to the Georgia prison on Sept. 3 -- Trump tweeted a story about a petition for the president to pardon Stone as he faces a sentence of 40 months for lying to Congress and misleading investigators on several key elements of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
On Saturday, Trump retweeted a message saying "IT’S TIME TO #PardonRogerStone"
This is not the first time a Trump tweet has raised the prospect of a Stone pardon. Earlier this month, on June 4, the president tweeted that "Roger was a victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt, one which will go down as the greatest political crime in history. He can sleep well at night!"
With Stone now seemingly having a hard prison report date in three weeks, Prez Trump is going to have to make a clemency decision sooner rather than later. If Prez Trump is really eager to keep Stone out of prison, I hope he might at least looks to include Stone with some additional meritorious clemency grants as he did back in February when commuted the sentences of sentences of three women along with Rod Blagojevich.
Prior related posts:
- For Roger Stone, federal prosecutors advocate for within-guideline sentence of 7.3 to 9 years in prison ... which Prez Trump calls a "miscarriage of justice!"
- DOJ now says "sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months [for Roger Stone] would be reasonable under the circumstances"
- Would it be improper for a President to write a character letter for a defendant facing federal sentencing?
- Roger Stone case generating some useful reflections on federal sentencing challenges and problems and lessons
- Roger Stone gets 40-month federal prison sentence ... but will he ever actually serve it?
- Is Prez Trump legally unable to grant clemency to Roger Stone?
- Will Prez Trump use his clemency pen to "rescue" his pal Roger Stone from federal prison?
- Donald Trump hinting that he will use his clemency powers on behalf of Roger Stone
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