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“Roger Stone is a free man now,” the White House said in a statement a few days before he began serving his sentence in federal prison.
Trump’s actions have undoubtedly renewed the accusations made against him in the past that the President is interfering in the United States justice system to help his friends and allies and punish critics and enemies.
Stone, one of Trump’s oldest comrades, was confronted last November for lying to Congress, influencing witnesses, and obstructing the House of Representatives investigation into whether the Trump campaign was complicit in the 2016 presidential election in Russia.
The White House report reiterated Trump’s claim that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller was investigating a crime that had never been committed. The report says Stone should never have been charged.
“The simple fact is that if the special counsel had not carried out an absolutely baseless investigation, Mr. (Roger) Stone would not have been sentenced to prison,” the report said.
The Trump administration has already weighed in on the Stone case once. After prosecutors were recommended to be sentenced to 7 to 9 years in prison, Attorney General Bill Barr, often accused of working as Trump’s personal lawyer, stepped in and called the sentence too harsh.
All four attorneys for the prosecution in the case resigned, and the newly appointed prosecutor recommended that he be sentenced to 3 to 4 years in prison.
Stone was already Trump’s sixth ally and was sentenced to prison on charges related to Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the election. The president himself was accused of abusing his power.
Critics reacted quickly to Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s custodial sentence.
California Senator Kamala Harris noted that Ca., a white man, was released and that Kentucky police officers accused of killing a black health worker were neither arrested nor charged.
“The two justice systems in this country must come to an end,” Harris wrote on Twitter.
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