The decision was controversial, but Donald Trump did was never hidden. In a press release, the american president announced on Friday, July 10, that he commuait the prison sentence of his friend Roger Stone, who was sentenced in February to 40 months behind bars in the framework of the investigation on the interference in Russian during the presidential campaign of 2016. "Today, president Donald J. Trump has ordered a measure of executive clemency to commute the sentence unfair of Roger Stone," announced the White House, adding that this long-time friend of the president, a " victim of the hoax Russian perpetuated by the left and its allies in the media ", was now " a free man ".
The jail sentence is Roger Stone, who had been convicted in November of lies to Congress, and bribery of witness, was to begin next week. Through his attorney, who has sent his statement to the media, he said he was "incredibly honored" to this "act of clemency" is a presidential. "Abuse of power" for the parliamentary democrats Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney. "No other president has not exercised his right of clemency for a reason as clearly personal and self-interested ", have responded to the presidents of the commissions and judicial oversight of the House of representatives.
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After the conviction of Roger Stone, Donald Trump had explained that he wanted to pardon her ex-employee, 67-year-old, a political adviser and sulphur known for its high style in color and his tattoo of Richard Nixon on the back. Roger Stone, who describes himself as " a habitué of dirty tricks ", has been found guilty of lying to Congress about his contacts with the WikiLeaks organization on the subject of e-mails that democrats hacked during the campaign of 2016. Prosecutors had shown that he had lied and intimidated witnesses to protect Donald Trump embarrassment.
A "judicial error"
The billionaire new york was reached during the judicial procedure, in criticizing, in tweets, the initial recommendations of the prosecutors assigned to investigate this case. Accused of violating the principle of separation of powers, and to pressure those prosecutors, he had explained that his actions did nothing wrong, claiming that it was a "very unfair" and a " miscarriage of justice ". The prosecutors in charge of the file had changed, and the recommendation of punishment of the ministry of Justice had increased to a duration between 7 and 9 years to a sentence of between 3 and 4 years, eventually followed by the federal judge who had sentenced Roger Stone in 40 months in prison.
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Donald Trump welcomed his minister of Justice Bill Barr for his intervention and said that " to have supported a case that was totally out of control ". But the latter, plunged in trouble because supposed to ensure the independence and impartiality of justice u.s. federal, had denied that these comments have had an impact on the decision of his services. The us president has already been accused of obstructing justice, in the framework of the investigation of Russian, including sacking at the beginning of his mandate the director of the FBI James Comey, who had reported on the foreign interference in the election of 2016. Roger Stone is among the six members of the entourage, the more or less near, the billionaire new yorkers have been charged or convicted in the wake of the investigation Russian.
