In defense of President Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of friend and former aide Roger Stone, the White House says special counsel Robert Mueller has no room to criticize the president.
The White House responded on Sunday to Washington Post opinion piece published Saturday, in which Mueller defended the prosecution and conviction of Stone, whom he referred to as a “convicted felon, and rightly so.” Stone was charged as part of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The White House pushed back on Mueller’s thoughts, pointing to his leading of an investigation that “wasted taxpayer dollars trying to undo an election.”
“Robert Mueller and his corrupt investigation failed to hold anyone in the Obama-Biden Administration accountable for their negligence toward Russian interference or for spying on the Trump Campaign based on a Democrat-funded dossier full of lies,” deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement to Fox News. “Mr. Mueller should keep his promise to the American people and let the report, which fully exonerated the President, stand instead of pontificating in the editorial pages with more spin.”
Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence followed a federal appeals court panel decision rejecting a request to delay his 40-month prison sentence, which would have begun this week.
Stone was found guilty of five separate counts of lying to members of Congress, one count that he “corruptly obstructed” the congressional investigation and another for intimidating potential congressional witnesses. Trump and his allies have cited Stone’s conviction as being perpetrated by Democrats, the mainstream media, and the “Russian hoax.”
Mueller rebuffed that claim, saying the conviction of Stone was based solely on factual information and evidence.
“We made every decision in Stone’s case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law and in accordance with the rule of law,” he wrote. “The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false.”
