Donald Trump just betrayed another one of his most loyal allies

| 10:43 pm EST February 20, 2020
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When Roger Stone was sentenced to prison today and Donald Trump predictably didn’t pardon him, I was wondering how all the “pardon hysteria” pundits would try to walk it back. After all, they said it was a foregone conclusion that Trump would tweet out a pardon as soon as Stone’s sentencing hearing was over.

Some of those pundits have settled on the narrative that because Stone’s prison sentence didn’t actually start today, Trump won’t magically pardon him until the day before the sentence begins. This is possible, as Trump’s worsening erraticism makes just about any random or impulsive move possible. But really, it’s not difficult to see what Trump is trying to do here.

Trump knows that pardons aren’t magic wands, and that pardoning a co-conspirator like Roger Stone could cause serious political and legal blowback for him. It’s why he never pardoned Paul Manafort or any of his other henchmen. It’s one thing for Trump to pardon some rich guy he owes a fair ot. It’s a different story if Trump pardoning someone for a crime that he himself had a hand in committing. So Trump would really rather wait to pardon Stone until after the November election. It’s why Trump is urging Stone to push for a new trial. Even though that has zero chance of being granted, the motions alone will delay the start of Stone’s sentence for a few months.

Donald Trump is trying to string Roger Stone along. Trump figures that by the time Stone has exhausted his appeals this summer, Trump can simply convince him to go ahead and report to prison until after election day. Will there be a point where Stone signals that he’s willing to leak Trump’s worst dirt in order to force an immediate pardon? We’ll see. But if Trump were loyal to Stone – in whatever perverse way criminal thugs are loyal to each other – he’d have pardoned Stone today. Instead, Trump is predictably betraying yet another one of his most loyal allies, and hoping Stone is too naive or desperate to catch on.