{"slug":"trump-roger-stone-pardon-commutation-obstruction","title":"Roger Stone: Convicted, Then Commuted, Then Pardoned — Witness Tampering and Obstruction Rewarded","date":"2019-11-15","lastUpdated":"2020-12-23","description":"Roger Stone, a decades-long Trump political advisor, was convicted in November 2019 on seven federal counts: five counts of making false statements to Congress, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of witness tampering. Mueller's investigation found Stone had coordinated with the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks's release of stolen Democratic emails and lied about it. Trump commuted Stone's sentence in July 2020 before Stone had served any prison time, and then issued a full pardon in December 2020. Prosecutors who had recommended the standard guidelines sentence resigned after political leadership overrode them.","summary":"Stone was convicted of lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks, which had published emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta by Russian intelligence. The jury found he had also tampered with a witness — elderly former radio host Randy Credico — to prevent him from contradicting Stone's false congressional testimony. Four prosecutors resigned from the case after political appointees overrode their sentencing recommendation. A fifth prosecutor withdrew entirely. Trump commuted Stone's sentence days before Stone was to report to prison; he issued a full pardon seven months later.","category":"rule-of-law","severity":"major","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/us/politics/trump-roger-stone-clemency.html","title":"Trump Commutes Roger Stone's Sentence","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pardons-roger-stone-paul-manafort-and-charles-kushner/2020/12/23/4b50dfa2-44d1-11eb-a277-49a6d1f9dff1_story.html","title":"Trump pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/trump-roger-stone-pardon-election-dc","title":"Trump pardons Roger Stone, says prosecution was 'a horrible thing'","publisher":"The Associated Press"},{"url":"https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf","title":"Mueller Report — Stone-WikiLeaks coordination","publisher":"U.S. Department of Justice"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Stone","pardon","obstruction","Russia","first-term","rule-of-law","WikiLeaks"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2019-01-25","title":"Stone arrested in early-morning FBI raid","summary":"Stone is arrested by FBI agents at his Fort Lauderdale home in a pre-dawn raid. CNN had cameras outside the house — a detail Stone and Trump later used to attack the Mueller investigation's conduct. Stone is indicted on seven counts."},{"date":"2019-11-15","title":"Stone convicted on all seven counts","summary":"A jury convicts Stone on all seven federal counts after a four-day trial. The jury deliberates for less than two days. Witness tampering victim Randy Credico testifies that Stone threatened him with violence to prevent contradictory testimony."},{"date":"2020-02-11","title":"DOJ overrides sentencing recommendation","summary":"Career prosecutors recommend 7-9 years under federal guidelines. Political leadership at DOJ — in an intervention Attorney General Barr later calls 'unprecedented' while claiming he had already decided to change it before Trump's tweet — files a reduced recommendation. All four career prosecutors resign from the case."},{"date":"2020-07-10","title":"Trump commutes Stone's sentence","summary":"Trump commutes Stone's sentence three days before Stone was to report to prison. Stone never serves any prison time. Trump describes the prosecution as 'a horrible thing, a very unfair thing.'"},{"date":"2020-12-23","title":"Full pardon issued","summary":"Trump issues a full pardon to Stone, along with pardons for Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner (Jared Kushner's father), and others, in a holiday pardon dump."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"judicial-finding","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Randy Credico (witness tampering victim); congressional oversight process; jury system; federal prosecution independence","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; commuted Stone's sentence before reporting to prison; issued full pardon; publicly pressured DOJ to reduce Stone's recommended sentence","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Roger Stone","role":"Trump associate convicted of obstruction, witness tampering, false statements","institution":"Trump campaign / Stone political consulting"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2020-12-23","summary":"Updated with full pardon."}]}}