Roger Stone Releases Statement on Presidential Pardon

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – On Wednesday, December 23, 2020, the following statement was released by Roger J. Stone regarding what he called an “extraordinary act of justice” by President Donald J. Trump who announced another 26 new pardons yesterday, one of which for Stone.

In July, Trump commuted the prison sentence of Roger Stone, who had been convicted of witness tampering, obstructing an official proceeding, and making false statements to Congress. The pardon now clears his record.

On behalf of my family and myself, I wish to praise God and give my deepest thanks to President Donald J. Trump for his extraordinary act of justice in issuing me a presidential pardon, completely erasing the criminal conviction to which I was subjected in a Soviet-style show trial on politically-motivated charges, further corrupted by egregious, illegal misconduct by the Jury Forewoman in the case.

Just weeks ago, when the US Department of Justice released the last remaining redacted sections of the ‘Mueller Report’ that pertained to my case, the Special Counsel admitted that there was no “factual” evidence whatsoever of coordination, collaboration or collusion between me, any Russians, WikiLeaks or publisher Julian Assange. Additionally, they found no “factual” evidence that I had advance knowledge of the precise timing, source or content of any of WikiLeaks’ 2016 disclosures, including the release of John Podesta’s apparently purloined emails.

Even more incredibly, the ‘Mueller Report’ concludes that even if they had found evidence that I had received data from WikiLeaks and disseminated it to anyone, these were perfectly legal, constitutionally-protected actions under the First Amendment. In short: Mueller’s intrusive, lawless, malicious multimillion-dollar witch hunt could find no prosecutable crime against me, other than what they managed to fabricate.

Why am I not shocked that only BuzzFeed, whose lawsuit won release of this material, the Washington Examiner and ZeroHedge reported this shocking news? Perhaps it’s because the Justice Department released it at midnight of election day – the busiest news day of the year – in other words, they wanted it buried deep. Or perhaps media outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, the Business Insider, Politico and others who gleefully reported lie after lie about me, my case and the purported “evidence” against me. In fact, the media jackals reported nothing.

I have no doubt that the unhinged radical left, who despise both President Trump and me, will now recycle the entirely-false and now thoroughly- debunked narrative that I “maintained my silence” regarding misconduct by the President in return for the commutation of my sentence and a pardon. Hillary Clinton has said it, Jerry Nadler has said it, Adam Schiff and Hakeem Jeffries have said it and Eric Swalwell, the communist Chinese-compromised Congressman, echoed it. It’s a lie.

This canard is based on a conversation I had with Howard Fineman that he later misreported on MSNBC. Fortunately, I have Fineman’s text message reaffirming that I never said I ‘knew of criminal misconduct’ by the President or ever said that I maintained my silence to protect him, but rather that I merely repeated what I had said on multiple occasions after the commutation of my sentence, namely that I refused to bear false testimony against the President when the Mueller prosecutors approached my attorneys seeking my “cooperation” in return for a recommendation for leniency in my sentencing.

Claims falsely made by Michael Cohen and Rick Gates that they overheard conversations between candidate Trump and myself discussing WikiLeaks are not only totally-uncorroborated, but also materialized only after the the Special Counsel’s legal operators’ induced the two with favorable plea bargains for their other crimes. These manufactured claims are unsupported by any phone records or witnesses and their sworn testimony is contradicted by their FBI 302 documents released by the Justice Department.

I was charged with “lying to Congress,” even though any misstatements I made to partisan Democrat inquisitors on the House Intelligence Committee concealed nothing material either to their investigation or regarding any underlying crime, because there was none. Rod Rosenstein testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not approve the investigation into my affairs. His statement is belied by his own signed scope-memo authorizing the Special Counsel’s expansion. In other words, Rosenstein lied to Congress under oath.

More recently, the Washington Post reported that three top senior nonpolitical career prosecutors denied claims made by Assistant US Attorney Aaron Zelinsky in sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Committee that they told him they were being pressured by the White House and top administration officials regarding my sentencing, specifically to “go easy on Stone in their sentencing recommendation.” In other words, both Rosenstein and Zelinsky lied to Congress. When will they be prosecuted?

Lastly, I want to particularly thank Rev. Franklin Graham for his spiritual guidance, as well as Rev. Randy Coggins, Pastor Mark Burns, Pastor Darrel Scott, Pastor Rod Parsley, Reverend Rodney Howard-Browne, David Clement, Eric Metaxas, Father Michael J. Grady of St. Anthony’s Parrish in Fort Lauderdale, and other men of God who convinced me that reaffirming my faith in Jesus Christ and confessing my sins would bring God’s grace in delivering me from my persecutors. How right they were.

The injustice done to me does not stand alone. Other good Americans have been victims of a corrupt system made to serve venal power-seekers, rewarding deceit and manipulation, rather than reason and justice. President Trump can be the purveyor of justice over the vile machinations of wicked pretenders to the mantle of public service. I hope the president will consider granting full and unconditional pardons to Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Marcus Garvey, and Former Secret Service Agent Abraham W. Bolden, Sr.