Tag

#pardon

3 incidents

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Roger Stone: Convicted, Then Commuted, Then Pardoned — Witness Tampering and Obstruction Rewarded

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. All four prosecutors withdrew from the case after senior DOJ officials overrode their sentencing recommendation. Trump commuted Stone's sentence days before Stone was to report to prison; he issued a full pardon seven months later.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Roger Stone: Convicted of Seven Felonies, Sentence Commuted, Then Pardoned

Stone was charged with lying to the House Intelligence Committee about his contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, when he served as an intermediary between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks regarding the release of hacked Democratic emails. He also threatened a witness — radio personality Randy Credico, whom he called a 'rat' and threatened to harm his therapy dog — to prevent him from contradicting Stone's testimony. The jury of twelve convicted Stone on every count after deliberating for two days. All four prosecutors withdrew from the case (one also resigned from the Justice Department) after the Justice Department overrode their sentencing recommendation of 7 to 9 years with a more lenient one, following Trump's tweet calling the original recommendation 'very unfair.' The federal judge sentenced Stone to 40 months.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Paul Manafort: Bank and Tax Fraud Convictions, Conspiracy and Witness-Tampering Plea — Pardoned

Prosecutors alleged Manafort was paid more than $60 million between 2010 and 2014 by Ukrainian sponsors for political work for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president later forced from office and who fled to Russia. Manafort hid the income in offshore accounts and spent lavishly while lying on tax returns and bank loan applications. Mueller's investigation documented that Manafort had also shared internal Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report (Volume 5, August 2020) characterized as a 'Russian intelligence officer', calling Manafort's activities a 'grave counterintelligence threat'.