Judge demands answers on the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s prison sentence

| 3:11 pm EDT July 13, 2020
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

When Roger Stone publicly hinted on Friday night that he was about to leak criminal dirt on Donald Trump, and Trump responded by almost immediately announcing that he was commuting Stone’s prison sentence, it set off all kinds of questions about the legality and constitutionality of what transpired. Now it turns out Trump may not have even really commuted Stone’s sentence.

It turns out Donald Trump and his White House never actually filed or released any documents commuting Stone’s sentence. Instead all that stands is the announcement to the media that the sentence had been commuted – which carries no legal weight. Judge Amy Berman Jackson is now giving Trump just one day to turn over the actual paperwork for the commutation.

This could quickly get interesting. If Donald Trump did indeed sign an executive order commuting Roger Stone’s sentence, why didn’t he bother to release it? What’s he trying to hide? And if Trump didn’t sign anything official, was he merely pretending he commuted Stone’s sentence? Unless and until Trump gives the judge proof that he’s commuted Stone’s sentence, she can still send Stone to prison. What’s going on here?