President Trump granted clemency to Roger Stone just a few days before Stone was set to start his prison sentence. This decision was a mistake, as many of his advisers, administration officials, and fellow Republicans reportedly told him. And to understand why, it’s worth remembering why Stone was sentenced to prison in the first place.
Stone has been a longtime Trump confidant, and he advised the president’s campaign informally back in 2016. His blatant and shady attempts to undermine Trump’s rivals drew the attention of former special counsel Robert Mueller, who was looking into alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Stone had been in direct contact with at least one relevant source, Guccifer 2.0, a Russian military intelligence persona responsible for a series of cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee — attacks that were later leaked to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
