White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday that Roger Stone’s commutation was a “very important moment for justice,” while criticizing past presidents for their use of the power of forgiveness.
In defense of President Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s upcoming prison sentence, McEnany said then-Special Adviser Robert Mueller had been accusing people of “process crimes” to “justify wasting tax dollars” on a “completely false witch hunt”.
Stone was convicted last year of lying to Congress, witnessing the manipulation, and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison. But on Friday, just a few days before he was to report there, Trump commuted his sentence.
McEnany said it was “curious” that former FBI official Andrew McCabe, CIA director under President Obama John Brennan, and Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have been accused of making false statements, but they did not face prosecution like Stone.
DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS CRITICIZE TRUMP FOR STARTING ROGER STONE PRISON JUDGMENT
“The last time I checked they didn’t have 29 FBI agents with tactical gear showing up at their home in a pre-dawn raid,” the press secretary said. “Instead, McCabe and Brennan and these guys get lucrative contracts, books, and contributions.”
McEnany said Trump is “the president of criminal justice reform,” and that Stone’s commutation was part of his fight for those who received excessively harsh sentences. He noted that while Trump issued 36 pardons and commutations, Obama issued 1,927.
She noted President Bill Clinton’s use of authority: “You speak of a politically connected forgiveness, it cannot be more politically connected than forgiving your brother Roger Clinton as President Clinton did.” Clinton forgave her half brother on drug charges after serving the full sentence more than a decade earlier.
McEnany also pointed out Clinton’s forgiveness to one of her associates, Susan McDougal, for her role in the Whitewater scandal after she refused to testify about Clinton’s role, and Marc Rich, who donated $ 450,000 to the Clinton Library. Foundation. Rich had fled the United States during the prosecution when he was charged with 51 counts of tax fraud and owed $ 48 million in taxes.
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“There really are two standards of justice in this country,” McEnany said, quoting Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, who expressed the same sentiment about Stone’s commutation: “As Adam Schiff pointed out, he unfortunately does not have the facts to back it up. that term the way you meant. “
