A federal judge is currently weighing whether Roger Stone should get prison time for the seven felony counts of witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and lying to Congress he was charged with.
However, even if Stone gets the maximum nine-year sentence prosecutors in the case asked for, he’s unlikely to serve a day in prison. Donald Trump is almost assured to pardon his longtime friend and political ally, Politico reports.
A Stone pardon would be the latest move by Trump to help his friends and allies who have been convicted on corruption charges.
Earlier this week, Trump pardoned or granted clemency to 11 criminals — all of whom either had personal ties to Trump or were pushed by personalities on Fox News, Trump’s favorite television network.
And at the same time Trump is letting convicted crooks like former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich free, he’s purging his administration of people battling corruption.
In one example, Trump forced out Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council after Vindman complied with a congressional subpoena in the impeachment inquiry.
Trump subsequently said he thought forcing Vindman out of his job wasn’t enough and suggested Vindman be punished for telling the truth under oath, as he was legally obligated to do.
Trump also purged a Pentagon official who raised concerns about Trump’s military aid hold to Ukraine.
But it’s not just people who opposed Trump’s Ukraine scheme who should be worried about their jobs — Politico reports that Trump loyalists are urging Trump to purge any Department of Justice officials who were part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
“This is a straightforward issue,” Tom Fitton, a conspiratorial right-wing figure who runs Judicial Watch, an organization that pushes investigations of Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, told Politico. “The president runs the Justice Department and there are a lot of people who don’t want the Justice Department to investigate Democrats.”
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
