As abuses of the pardon power go - and they do go - I can't get too whipped up over President Trump's commutation of Roger Stone's 40-month sentence for non-violent criminal obstruction of a bogusly based and ridiculously over-prosecuted investigation.
If we are assessing President Trump's job performance it is more damaging that he has brought people such as Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Stone into his inner circle than that he has used the pardon power to spare one of them from imprisonment.
If he was going to commute Stone's sentence, then he should have done it after Stone was convicted - or just pardoned Stone outright, since he claims to believe Stone did nothing wrong.
After the clemency was announced, Weissmann took to Twitter to assert, "Time to put Roger Stone in the grand jury to find out what he knows about Trump but would not tell. Commutation can't stop that." Well, no, but the Fifth Amendment can.
Weissmann, a longtime prosecutor who is intimately familiar with the appellate process, has to know that because Trump did not pardon Stone, the case is still on direct appeal.
Weissmann could have immunized Stone if he believed Stone was withholding vital incriminating evidence against Trump - and then he could have prosecuted Stone for contempt if Stone resisted.
Stone was alleged to have lied about discussing WikiLeaks; that's why he was charged only with process crimes, despite all of the heavy breathing about collusion in Mueller's indictment of Stone.
If we are assessing President Trump's job performance it is more damaging that he has brought people such as Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Stone into his inner circle than that he has used the pardon power to spare one of them from imprisonment.
If he was going to commute Stone's sentence, then he should have done it after Stone was convicted - or just pardoned Stone outright, since he claims to believe Stone did nothing wrong.
After the clemency was announced, Weissmann took to Twitter to assert, "Time to put Roger Stone in the grand jury to find out what he knows about Trump but would not tell. Commutation can't stop that." Well, no, but the Fifth Amendment can.
Weissmann, a longtime prosecutor who is intimately familiar with the appellate process, has to know that because Trump did not pardon Stone, the case is still on direct appeal.
Weissmann could have immunized Stone if he believed Stone was withholding vital incriminating evidence against Trump - and then he could have prosecuted Stone for contempt if Stone resisted.
Stone was alleged to have lied about discussing WikiLeaks; that's why he was charged only with process crimes, despite all of the heavy breathing about collusion in Mueller's indictment of Stone.
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