Sen. Mitt Romney tore into President Trump’s decision to commute his ally Roger Stone’s prison sentence.
“Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president,” the Utah Republican tweeted Saturday morning.
Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) July 11, 2020
It was the strongest statement of disapproval yet from a high-profile Republican after the White House announced on Friday that the president was commuting Stone’s entire three-year prison sentence, which does leave intact his criminal record.
Romney, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in the 2012 election, became the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president from his own party during the impeachment trial of Trump in February.
Stone, 67, was set to report to prison on Tuesday. An emergency appeal to extend his Tuesday surrender date because of the pandemic was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit prior to the commutation announcement on Friday.
The White House statement said that Stone “would be put at serious medical risk” if sent to prison and claimed that he was “treated very unfairly” by the courts.
Stone, who maintained his innocence, noted to journalist Howard Fineman on Friday, right before he was granted clemency, that he had stayed loyal to the president after he was convicted of lying to congressional investigators, obstructing a congressional investigation, and attempting to intimidate a possible congressional witness.
“He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t,” Stone said.
After being granted clemency, Stone said Trump “saved my life.”
