Readers Write: Stone pardon smacks of corruption

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Trump and Roger Stone

Roger Stone started learning dirty tricks working on Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. He co-founded a lobbying firm with Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager and another convicted felon. Stone worked for Trump in the 1990s by lobbying for Trump’s casinos. I guess that didn’t work out too well as Trump’s casinos went bankrupt.

Stone’s life is filled with shady deals during his work on a number of political campaigns. He has promoted false conspiracy theories and has given out false information.

During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Russians hacked emails at the Democratic National Committee. These emails were turned over to Wikileaks and made public by Julian Assange. Roger Stone had contact with both Assange and Russian Intelligence. Stone reported to the Trump campaign when these emails would be released.

In 2019, the Mueller investigation led to Stone’s indictment for lying, witness tampering and obstruction. Stone was convicted on all seven counts. After Trump complained at the initial recommended sentence of seven to nine years, Attorney General William Barr took charge and the Justice Dept. reduced its requested sentence. Stone was then sentenced to only 40 months in prison. The four initial prosecutors resigned from the case in protest against this political interference in our justice system. More than 2,000 former employees of the Justice Dept. signed a letter protesting this political interference in our system of justice.

Roger Stone lied to protect Trump. Donald Trump just paid back Stone by commuting his jail sentence. This is a clear quid pro quo. This is an abuse of a president’s pardon power and an obstruction of justice. Trump is running our government as if it were a Mafia organization. Anyone who doesn’t support the Don is punished and pushed out.

Trump’s outrageous protection of Roger Stone is just the latest example of the president’s corruption and incompetence. Another is Trump’s failure to take any action against Russia for Putin’s paying a bounty to the Taliban for every American they kill. This borders on treason. But this is a matter left for another day.

Robert Kleinman
Port Washington

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