Even amid the endless torrent of malevolent incompetence that characterizes the Boss Trump regime, some days stand out. One such was his Friday night commutation of career lowlife Roger Stone’s 40-month sentence for lying to Congress, obstructing a congressional investigation, and witness tampering. The federal judge who handed it down described Stone’s crimes as “covering up for the president.”
Specifically, he obstructed the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In the immediate aftermath, Stone bragged to veteran journalist Howard Fineman about why he lied and who he was protecting. “He [Trump] knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t.”
Turn on him, that is, by fully describing his own and Trump’s conversations about Wikileaks during the 2016 campaign when Julian Assange served as a cat’s paw for Russian intelligence by publishing the Democratic National Committee’s stolen emails. Trump testified that he has no memory of talking with Stone about it, although two witnesses overheard them. He also swore that his son Donald, Jr. never told him about meeting Kremlin operatives promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in Trump Tower. Continue reading.