The real reason Donald Trump just announced he’s NOT pardoning Roger Stone
There were widespread predictions that after Roger Stone was sentenced today, Donald Trump would immediately and triumphantly announce via Twitter that he’s pardoning Stone on all charges. Of course these predictions were based on the premise that pardons are magic wands, when in reality Trump would be unleashing a tidal wave of political and legal trouble upon himself if he were to pardon a co-conspirator. If you’re a Palmer Report reader, you’re probably not surprised that Trump just announced he’s not pardoning Stone.
Reporter Zeke Miller from the AP has posted this tweet, which confirms that Trump isn’t going to pardon Stone at this time. It also gives away a lot about what’s really going on here:
Trump on Roger Stone: "I’m not going to do anything in terms of the great powers bestowed upon a president of the United States. I want the process to play out. I think that’s the best thing to do because I would love to see Roger exonerated."
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 20, 2020
As Palmer Report has explained, if Trump were to pardon Stone now, he’d be setting off a legal battle that could end up severely limiting his pardon powers going forward – which would be problematic when it comes time for Trump to try to pardon himself and his family on his way out the door. If Trump is going to pardon someone like Stone, he’s almost certainly going to try to wait until after November. If Trump loses the election, he can simply pardon people like Stone while he’s attempting to pardon himself. And if Trump wins the election, all bets are off anyway.
Donald Trump’s statement today is pretty clearly aimed at trying to convince Roger Stone to push ahead with the appeals process for now, and to wait for his pardon until after November. The only reason for Trump to take the enormous risk of pardoning Stone right now would be if he’s afraid that Stone is about to go public with the dirt from their forty years of shared history.
So what about all those pardons yesterday? That was Donald Trump’s way of trying to signal to Roger Stone that he’s willing to throw pardons around left and right, and that Stone will indeed get his pardon in November. But Trump isn’t to be trusted, and Stone knows Trump better than anyone. Is Stone willing to rot in solitary confinement for most of 2020, or will he try to force Trump’s hand? In any case, Trump appears to still grasp that pardons aren’t magic wands when it comes to his own co-conspirators.
