MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said there will be “rumors” that Attorney General William Barr nearly resigned over President Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s prison sentence.
Wallace, who cited “well-sourced spin” coming out of the White House, said on Friday that she spoke to someone who was “enlisted” to talk Trump out of granting his longtime adviser clemency.
“There will be rumors in the coming days that William Barr almost resigned over this. That [White House counsel] Pat Cipollone was deeply troubled by this. They may be true, but no one will leave,” Wallace told fellow MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow. She added that they are “all accomplices in the corruption of one of the most sacred presidential powers.”
Such rumors have yet to surface, but on Saturday, NBC News White House correspondent Geoff Bennett reported that an administration official said Barr told Trump he opposed clemency for Stone.
Stone, who had been convicted of charges stemming from the U.S. government’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, had been convicted of lying to congressional investigators, obstructing a congressional investigation, and attempting to intimidate a possible congressional witness.
Wallace, who had a career in Republican politics, including serving as the White House communications director under President George W. Bush, said she spoke to two former Justice Department officials “who said that Trump pardons people because he can and William Barr goes along with it because he’s complicit in the erasure — just erasing Robert Mueller’s probe.”
Wallace encouraged MSNBC viewers to ask “really serious questions” about Barr’s actions leading up to the 2020 election, including his oversight of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal investigation of the Russia inquiry.
“Remember their names: Pat Cipollone and Bill Barr,” she added. “They will not resign. And if they do, I will come on the air and apologize to both of them. But I bet my last dollar that no one will resign. They will all look the other way.”
