Donald Trump’s message for Roger Stone: bon voyage!
Spoiler alert, if you haven’t figured it out by now: Donald Trump isn’t even going to try to pardon any of his henchmen or underlings in the Trump-Russia scandal. We know this because he’s already passed up opportunities to try to pardon Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, and others before they cut plea deals and provided evidence and testimony against him. That window is closed.
Yet the media keeps hyping the pardon angle because, well, it scares people into thinking Donald Trump and his people might still somehow magically get away with it all, and that kind of fear is good for ratings. So it’s not surprising that during his Face The Nation interview this morning, Trump was asked whether he’ll try to pardon his recently arrested friend Roger Stone. Trump’s response gave away, yet again, that there are no magic pardons in this scandal.
Donald Trump said this during the interview, as a way of distancing himself from Roger Stone, which is what he always does when his own people get nabbed: “First of all, Roger Stone didn’t work on the campaign, except way, way at the beginning, long before we’re talking about.” Then he added that he hasn’t even thought about pardoning Stone, because “it looks like he’s defending himself very well.” Oops.
If you’re Roger Stone, you’re reading these words and cringing. Donald Trump is convincing himself that he doesn’t need to stick his neck out and try to pardon his oldest friend. Now would be the only time to try, because by the time Stone is convicted in a year or two, Trump will be ousted and facing his own criminal trial. So Trump has already decided to cut Stone loose and let him sink or swim (hint: definitely sink, based on the charges) of his own accord.
It’s not as if Donald Trump could get Roger Stone off the hook with a pardon anyway. The courts could strike it down, on the basis that it’s an attempt at pardoning an alleged co-conspirator, which itself is a felony act of obstruction of justice. Even if the pardon stood, New York would simply hit Stone with state level charges that definitely can’t be pardoned by the president.
We’ll see if Donald Trump ultimately tries to pardon himself and his kids as he’s being ousted. That wouldn’t work either, considering they’re all going to be on the hook for state crimes in New York. But at this point it couldn’t be more clear that Trump isn’t willing to risk trying to pardon the people outside his family. That window came and went. Roger Stone is on his own. The only question is whether he’s figured it out yet.
