NBC Reporter: Trump Went Against Nearly All Senior Advisors to Protect Roger Stone from Doing Jail Time; Told Move Could Be Politically Risky

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WASHINGTON, NY – It didn’t take long for former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the lead in the multi-year long Russia collusion hoax investigation, and someone who rarely makes public statements in the media, to come out against President Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s prison sentence just days before the longtime political operative was expected to report to prison.

Yesterday, Mueller wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post saying he was responding for two separate reasons outlined in his opt-ed,

“both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate, and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office. The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”

On Friday, the White House announced that President Trump had signed an Executive Grant of Clemency commuting the sentence of Roger Stone, a longtime political operative who was expected to report to prison for charges stemming from the Mueller investigation into the now debunked “Russian Collusion” probe and according to a White House correspondent, that decision was surely not an easy one, likely made with Trump having significant conviction that there was manipulation in Stone’s case.

According to Kristen Welker, NBC News White House Correspondent, while speaking with Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press today, Trump pushed back on just about all his White House senior advisers to free Roger Stone.

It seems that he pushed back on most advisers, Chuck, according to conversations with multiple officials. He was counselled against this move by some of his top aides including by the attorney general and yet, president trump moved forward with this decision and, look, his aides, Chuck, were saying to them this could be politically risky. This could ultimately cost you. Your base supports you because they wanted you to build the wall and drain the swamp and this winds up looking like a very swampy move, as one aide said to me. President Trump right now is trailing in the polls to Joe Biden and a lot of aides are concerned that he is not going to be able to afford these types of missteps, Chuck.

The Trump White House later that evening defended their action to commute Stone’s prison sentence saying again that Stone fell victim to the collusion hoax that was perpetuated for years to undermine the Trump Presidency.

“As it became clear that these witch hunts would never bear fruit, the Special Counsel’s Office resorted to process-based charges leveled at high-profile people in an attempt to manufacture the false impression of criminality lurking below the surface. These charges were the product of recklessness borne of frustration and malice. This is why the out-of-control Mueller prosecutors, desperate for splashy headlines to compensate for a failed investigation, set their sights on Mr. Stone,” said the Trump White House.

Stone, now 67, was convicted in November of seven charges including lying to Congress under oath, obstruction of a congressional investigation and tampering with a witness, as a part of the Trump-Russia investigation.

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