President Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of longtime confidant Roger Stone after the former campaign adviser was sentenced to three years and four months in prison in connection with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The decision capped a months-long saga that has roiled the Justice Department and divided some of the president’s advisers. Stone was set to report to prison July 14, but his allies had lobbied for a pardon or a commutation, citing his risk of contracting coronavirus while in jail.
The move Friday did not come as a particular surprise, as Trump had at various points in recent months signaled he was leaning toward intervening in Stone’s case. Trump told reporters he was considering a commutation or pardon for Stone as the date he was scheduled to report to prison loomed.
The announcement from the White House came roughly an hour after an appeals court denied Stone’s motion to delay the start of his prison term, scheduled to begin Tuesday.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany issued a statement Friday evening describing Stone as “a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency.” McEnany said that Trump had signed an executive grant of clemency commuting his “unjust” sentence.
Trump has regularly railed against the prosecutors involved in the case, singled out the Obama-appointed federal judge overseeing the trial for criticism and complained that the conservative provocateur was the victim of a “ridiculous” process.
Stone, who has maintained his innocence and tried to appeal his conviction, was the last of six Trump associates to be charged in connection with Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia that dogged the president's first two years in office. Mueller did not find evidence to charge Trump campaign associates with conspiring with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, but found that the campaign welcomed Moscow’s interference efforts.
Justice Department leadership moved to reduce Stone’s sentencing recommendation in February in a highly controversial move, leading all four career prosecutors working on his case to quit.
Stone was convicted in November by a jury in Washington, D.C., of all counts he was charged with, including lying to Congress in connection with its separate investigation into Russian interference, witness tampering and obstructing an official proceeding.
McEnany argued Friday that Stone was charged with “alleged crimes” arising “solely” from Mueller’s “improper” investigation and that the GOP operative's imprisonment would put him at “serious medical risk.” However, she said that Trump did not want to “interfere” with Stone’s efforts to appeal his conviction, meaning that those efforts will move forward and his conviction will stand.
"Roger Stone has already suffered greatly. He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man," the spokeswoman said in a statement.
Attorney General William Barr said in an interview released July 8 that he felt Stone’s prosecution was “righteous.” He did not offer an opinion on the prospect of a pardon for Stone, saying that would be up to the president. Aaron Zelinsky, who was among the prosecutors who quit Stone’s case, testified before Congress in June that the Justice Department treated Stone differently because of his relationship with Trump.
Stone’s allies celebrated Trump’s decision Friday evening, while Trump’s critics decried it as damaging to the rule of law and an abuse of presidential power.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who leads the congressional panel to which Stone lied, sharply criticized Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s sentence as “among the most offensive to the rule of law and principles of justice.”
“With this commutation, Trump makes clear that there are two systems of justice in America: one for his criminal friends, and one for everyone else. Donald Trump, Bill Barr, and all those who enable them pose the gravest of threats to the rule of law,” Schiff said.
Meanwhile, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said they would seek an “immediate briefing” from the White House counsel’s office on the circumstances surrounding Stone’s commutation.
Trump has long railed against the Russia investigation, decrying the process as a "witch hunt" and excoriating the special counsel and FBI for what the president has deemed mistreatment of his allies throughout the process. More recently, he has tried to blame former President Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, his likely 2020 Democratic opponent, for what he alleges were nebulous crimes committed against his campaign. Trump accused Obama of committing “treason” in a June television interview but has not provided any supporting evidence.
Stone is the latest high-profile individual with connections to Trump to receive executive clemency. The president earlier this year commuted the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and pardoned former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and financier Michael Milken.
Like many of the individuals Trump has pardoned or issued commutations for, Stone had a steady drumbeat of support among presidential allies and Fox news personalities who lobbied for clemency over the course of several months.
There has also been speculation that Trump could move to pardon Michael Flynn, his short-lived national security adviser, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in late 2017 but whose case the Justice Department moved to drop earlier this year in an extraordinary development as prosecutors said they could no longer prove their case. Democrats have accused Barr of political interference in the case.
Gregg Jarrett: Trump right to commute Roger Stone’s sentence – Stone committed no crime, was framed by Mueller
Mueller charged Stone to get him to incriminate President Trump for imaginary crimes based on invented evidence of Russian “collusion"
By Gregg Jarrett | Fox News
President Trump commutes Roger Stone's prison sentence
The legal landscape is littered with the destruction wrought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his “hit squad” of partisan prosecutors.
By commuting the prison sentence of Roger Stone on Friday, President Trump took a justified step in rectifying an egregious wrong. The president’s decision was also a compassionate gesture toward a 67-year old man who is not in the best of health and would have entered a federal prison system Tuesday that is struggling to contain the deadly coronavirus that is especially virulent for older Americans.
Illegitimately appointed under federal regulations, Mueller employed a scorched-earth strategy to bully, intimidate, and threaten people like former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos into coerced guilty pleas.
Mueller’s ultimate goal was to get these people to incriminate President Trump for imaginary crimes based on invented evidence of Russian “collusion” to steal the 2016 presidential election. But they didn’t. There was nothing incriminating. But the truth was irrelevant to the special counsel.
Mueller didn’t care that it was all a hoax and that the supposed “evidence” was phony. He was more than willing to force people to lie to falsely implicate Trump/
People associated with the president — like conservative radio host Jerome Corsi and former Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland — were put in a room and threatened with years behind bars if they declined to capitulate. But they refused to lie and no charges were brought against them because there was no evidence they had done anything wrong.
Indeed, Mueller never charged anyone with a “collusion” conspiracy, since it never actually happened.
Roger Stone also resisted. But his punishment by Mueller was a 24-page indictment and jackbooted tactics during an early morning arrest at his home,
Twenty-nine FBI agents wearing tactical gear and wielding M4 rifles, swept across Stone’s lawn. Four agents used a battering ram to break down his front door and then pointed rifle barrels at Stone’s head.
A helicopter hovered above, and two police boats roared up to the back yard of Stone’s home. The bust was shown live on CNN, which just happened to be there at 6 a.m.
The bizarre raid was not designed to capture an armed and dangerous criminal, but rather a writer, self-promoter and longtime friend of Trump. The feds knew that Stone had no criminal record, owned no firearms, and had an expired passport and thus was not dangerous or a flight risk.
But that wasn’t the point. The objective was to scare the hell out of Stone so that he might say something damaging about Trump, even if it was a complete fabrication. It was the equivalent of suborning perjury.
The objective was to scare the hell out of Stone so that he might say something damaging about Trump, even if it was a complete fabrication
Mueller’s abusive wielding of power in the arrest of Stone revealed the rot at the heart of the entire Russia investigation. It was, as Trump tweeted at the time, the “Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers are treated better.”
The indictment of Stone was a gaseous windbag of a document. It told of a tantalizing story about Trump, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. The indictment suggested that Stone might have had some advance knowledge or inside information about the contents of hacked Hillary Clinton campaign emails that were released by WikiLeaks in the summer of 2016.
“Advance knowledge” is not a crime, by the way. Hence, all the froth boiled down to allegations of what are known as “process crimes” — obstruction, making false statements and witness tampering.
I don’t want to minimize or condone process crimes. No person should ever lie, mislead, or obstruct a legitimate law enforcement investigation. But Mueller’s probe was far from legitimate.
Moreover, none of the charges had anything to do with Trump-Russia “collusion.” It was not alleged that Stone had conspired with Russians to hack or steal documents.
Instead, Stone stood accused of reaching out to WikiLeaks and asking others to do so — as did hundreds of journalists in the summer of 2016, myself included. That is not a crime. If it was, I’d be composing this column behind bars.
An examination of Stone’s emails showed that he provided little more than the same information that WikiLeaks had already stated publicly. Stone speculated that the Clinton emails would be damaging. But that was stating the obvious.
By trying to insert himself into the action, Stone created the appearance that he knew more than he did — a frequent habit of his.
Mueller’s job was to uncover crimes that had occurred before he was appointed. But his investigation generated or created the charges against Stone. This invites the question: did Stone lie or make false statements?
Stone insisted that he had forgotten about some of the documents and conversations he had been asked to recount, saying: “I am human and I did make some errors.”
Did Stone threaten a witness? Stone claimed his statements were jocular and taken wildly out of context.
Although he pleaded not guilty, Stone was convicted by a jury in Washington in November.
If you are a friend of Trump, getting a fair trial in the District of Columbia is a challenge, if not an impossibility, especially in a politically charged case. In the last presidential election, 90.5 percent of the ballots in the nation’s capital were cast in favor of Hillary Clinton. A scant 4.1 percent of votes were cast for Trump.
Suspicions of a wrongful conviction against Stone became more acute when new evidence emerged after his trial that justice may have been undone by a jury foreperson who harbored a disqualifying bias.
Tomeka Hart, the foreperson, is a Democratic activist who voiced extreme anti-Trump opinions that were largely concealed during jury selection. Before she was ever picked for the trial, Hart posted numerous social media comments highly critical of Trump and actively engaged in protests against him.
Even worse, in a string of posts Hart commented negatively about the Stone case itself, praised the Mueller investigation and suggested that the president and his supporters (such as Stone) were racists.
Hart referred to Trump with the hashtag “klanpresident.” She should never, under any circumstances, have been sitting in judgment of Stone. Hart must have known this, inasmuch as she is a lawyer.
As I pointed out in a previous column, Hart’s record is indicative of a manifest prejudice against Stone by virtue of his close association with Trump. Because Hart was the foreperson who had the ability to guide and even induce other jurors to convict Stone, it is likely that he was deprived of his constitutional right to an impartial jury and a fair trial,
Predictably, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, denied a motion for a new trial for Stone.
The judge blamed Stone’s attorneys for not uncovering evidence of bias before the trial commenced. Under the law, that is not an excuse for refusing to overturn a tainted conviction by granting a new trial
When our imperfect system of justice fails the president is constitutionally empowered to issue either a pardon or a commutation. Indeed, he may do so for either a good reason or no reason at all.
President Trump did not pardon Stone, which would have absolved him of his convicted crimes. Rather, Trump commuted Stone’s sentence of 40 months in prison.
Stone’s convictions will stand, unless a higher court reverses them on appeal. The political and media backlash will be severe, to be sure. But that has never deterred Trump before and should not in the future.
The contorted case of Roger Stone is a sad coda to the work of Robert Mueller. As Trump tweeted last month, Stone was “a victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt, one which will go down as the greatest political crime in history. He can sleep well at night!”
Stone has suffered enough, He deserves to sleep in his own bed.
he committed a crime. and was convicted by a jury.
trump is a scumbag, and so is the guy he commuted the sentence for.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Romney blasts Trump's Stone commutation: 'Historic corruption'
BY JESSE BYRNES AND TAL AXELROD - 07/11/20 09:23 AM EDT link
GOP Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) on Saturday sharply condemned President Trump's commutation for longtime ally and political confidant Roger Stone, labeling it "historic corruption."
"Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president," Romney tweeted Saturday morning.
Mitt Romney @MittRomney Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president. 9:06 AM · Jul 11, 2020
Romney, a vocal Trump critic, was one of the first Republican lawmakers to weigh in on the president's commutation for Stone, who was sentenced to more than three years in prison before the commutation.
Stone was convicted last year of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of official proceeding. He was due to report to prison Tuesday before Trump stepped in to commute his sentence.
Some of Trump's defenders in Congress have rallied around the commutation, which was expected after the president spoke out in defense of Stone and his former campaign adviser's prison term loomed.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted Friday before the commutation was announced that "in my view it would be justified" for Trump to commute the sentence, saying, "this was a non-violent, first-time offense."
Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees the Justice Department, called the initial FBI investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe "biased and corrupt."
Stone is the latest individual with ties to Trump to receive clemency, joining supporters like former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and financier Michael Milken.
Democrats railed against Trump's move Friday night, accusing the president of setting up an alternate system of justice for his allies.
“The American ideal of equal justice under the law is once again being undermined by a lawless president who regards the Justice Department as his personal plaything,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Republicans largely refrained from criticizing the commutation, instead pointing blame at the prosecutors who brought the charges against Stone in their investigation into Russian election interference.
Romney has consistently been one of the few Republicans willing to criticize the White House, famously emerging as the only GOP senator to vote for an article of impeachment against Trump earlier this year.
Romney is part of the problem, he is being divisive and not trying to come together and heal and find solutions. Calling out 'Historic Corruption' only alienates one side
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
You lie for me and I will obstruct justice for you.
Standard practice in the trump white house.
It is the way he has conducted his entire life. Not hard to verify that fact. All one needs to do is look. Plenty of evidence.
Check in with all those former administration employees hired by trump and now have left for any number of reasons.
Tillerson, Mantis, Kelly, McMaster, Bolton, Cohen, and yes his niece Mary Trump. Family, members of cabinet people with intimate knowledge of his true character.
No need to check with third party opinions and trump media outlets. Check the facts of his life and career. His own lawyer Cohen can supply examples. Read Bolton's book. Bolton a hard core Republican conservative with a front row seat. Mary Trump the daughter of his brother.
No, No, not good enough "must listen to Rush." "Must watch Fox." "Hannity is truth." "Tucker is gospel."
Attend rally. Don't wear a mask. Must follow leader.
Ignore science. "It's no worse than the flu." "It will all disappear when the weather gets warm."
Really? Stone convicted by jury for seven felonies.
Mr. Stone, 67, was convicted in federal court of seven felonies for obstructing the congressional inquiry, lying to investigators under oath and trying to block the testimony of a witness whose account would have exposed his lies. Jurors deliberated for a little over seven hours before convicting him on all counts.
These were his efforts to sabotage a congressional investigation that threatened his longtime friend President Trump.
Drain the Swamp? The definition of the Swamp. Quid Quo Pro.
How many of those were long time political allies? How many of them were convicted on seven charges? You do know when you compare things they need to be similar, right?
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
It amazes me how they still don't seem to grasp that Stone is being rewarded for committing felonies to help in his commission of a cover up for Trump.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
bro how are you so proud to vote for a corrupt racist?
you know GD well that if this happened under obama you would be screaming right now.
but now all of a sudden you're cool with this?
come on bro.....either stick to your values, or just admit that you dont have any.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
All of you have a reading deficiency. Stone was not pardoned. His sentence was commuted. He won't serve jail time in a federal pen while he awaits his appeal. He's still convicted.
I want to see if this case gets thrown out due to a heavily biased jury foreperson.
What difference does that really make? He still won't serve a day in prison as a reward for helping in a cover up for Trump. The right will just make him out to be a hero like they did old Ollie north. You're only a good cocaine trafficker if you're a Republican cocaine trafficker.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
What difference does that really make? He still won't serve a day in prison as a reward for helping in a cover up for Trump. The right will just make him out to be a hero like they did old Ollie north. You're only a good cocaine trafficker if you're a Republican cocaine trafficker.
A lot, actually. If Stone wins his appeal, then all Trump did was keep him out of prison before the appeal was finished.
Did all of you miss the part of the head jurist being an avid and active Trump hater? You'd all be screaming bloody murder if the parties were reversed on this.
Did all of you miss the part of the head jurist being an avid and active Trump hater? You'd all be screaming bloody murder if the parties were reversed on this.
Did all of you miss the part of the head jurist being an avid and active Trump hater? You'd all be screaming bloody murder if the parties were reversed on this.
god this is utterly ridiculous. once again, the maga hatters are implying that somebody cant possibly do their jobs correctly because they dont like trump. but somehow, its ok for people to hate hillary to investigate hillary.
i want to remind the board that Erik also defended trump when he stated "the judge is mexican, and im building a wall."
cant expect any honest and useful dialogue from a dude like that.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Did all of you miss the part of the head jurist being an avid and active Trump hater? You'd all be screaming bloody murder if the parties were reversed on this.
god this is utterly ridiculous. once again, the maga hatters are implying that somebody cant possibly do their jobs correctly because they dont like trump. but somehow, its ok for people to hate hillary to investigate hillary.
i want to remind the board that Erik also defended trump when he stated "the judge is mexican, and im building a wall."
cant expect any honest and useful dialogue from a dude like that.
There is no way that woman should have served on the jury, much less as the foreman.
Did all of you miss the part of the head jurist being an avid and active Trump hater?
god this is utterly ridiculous.
So I stripped out the personal stuff on both your sides and left it to just these two parts.
Why would it be utterly ridiculous to be concerned that the head jurist is an active Trump hater? I don't know all the background here. I'm just wondering why it's ridiculous.
Is it because of this?
Quote:
implying that somebody cant possibly do their jobs correctly because they dont like trump.
Whether they can or not, wouldn't it be in everyone's best interest to make sure the people involved are objective?
how can someone even prove objectively over something like that?
again, Erik never complained that the people leading the investigations into hillary were active hillary haters. where was his complaints then?
there was an active maga hatter during manaforts trial, and despite all the evidence, refused to convict him on all counts.
Erik wasnt complaining about a maga hatter in favor of one of trump's associates.
im asking Erik why he has a double standard.
my entire post was geared toward his hypocrisy. mad about one, cool about the other.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Washington (CNN)Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that he will grant a request by Democrats to have former special counsel Robert Mueller testify about his investigation before the committee.
Graham's comments follow an op-ed by Mueller published Saturday in The Washington Post, in which the former special counsel defended his office's prosecution of Roger Stone and wrote that he is still a convicted felon and "rightly so" in light of President Donald Trump's commutation of Stone. Mueller was appointed in May 2017 to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. "Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing - and also capable - of defending the Mueller investigation through an oped in the Washington Post," Graham wrote on Twitter. He added, "Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have previously requested Mr. Mueller appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about his investigation. That request will be granted." Senate Democrats have repeatedly pushed for Mueller to testify before the committee. Republicans in the Senate have said it's time to move on from the investigation, but previously Graham said, "I'm all good, I'm done with the Mueller report." Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend, who was convicted of crimes as part of Mueller's Russia investigation that included lying to Congress in part, prosecutors said, to protect the President. The announcement came just days before Stone was set to report to a federal prison in Georgia. Stone's commutation appears to have broken the floodgates with Mueller and his tight-lipped team after a year of silence about their investigation. Throughout the investigation, Mueller's office refused to comment except in a few rare circumstances. Andrew Weissmann, the special counsel's office prosecutor who led the investigation of top Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, began tweeting about Stone on Friday night. Mueller, for his part, has been silent since he testified reluctantly under subpoena to Congress last July. And even then, he was circumspect and hesitant to elaborate on his investigation's findings. In the op-ed, Mueller pointed out that the people involved in the investigations and prosecutions during his investigation acted with the "highest integrity." "We made every decision in Stone's case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law and in accordance with the rule of law. The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false," Mueller wrote.
By the way, Barr, trumps AG, said the conviction was legit.
But I guess that doesn’t count.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
how can someone even prove objectively over something like that?
again, Erik never complained that the people leading the investigations into hillary were active hillary haters. where was his complaints then?
there was an active maga hatter during manaforts trial, and despite all the evidence, refused to convict him on all counts.
Erik wasnt complaining about a maga hatter in favor of one of trump's associates.
im asking Erik why he has a double standard.
my entire post was geared toward his hypocrisy. mad about one, cool about the other.
What double standard? There's a big difference between an investigation and a trial. Right now, we don't know if this woman hid her activism, or if the defense has used up their dismissals of jurors before she was interviewed. If she hid it, it's a mistrial.
Active maga hatter? Does that mean he was on social media saying he was going to vote not guilty during the trial? This woman was on social media bragging how she was going to get Stone convicted during the trial.
All of you have a reading deficiency. Stone was not pardoned. His sentence was commuted. He won't serve jail time in a federal pen while he awaits his appeal. He's still convicted.
I want to see if this case gets thrown out due to a heavily biased jury foreperson.
I'm pretty sure there will be some state charges for Stone and others after all of this is done. Trump messed up not outright pardoning him because the felony convictions remain after commutation and he will be a felon going forward.
All of you have a reading deficiency. Stone was not pardoned. His sentence was commuted. He won't serve jail time in a federal pen while he awaits his appeal. He's still convicted.
I want to see if this case gets thrown out due to a heavily biased jury foreperson.
I'm pretty sure there will be some state charges for Stone and others after all of this is done. Trump messed up not outright pardoning him because the felony convictions remain after commutation and he will be a felon going forward.
Adam Schiff: "Republicans won't stand up for the rule of law"
House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) criticized Republicans for not speaking out against President Trump's commutation of Roger Stone's prison sentence, pointing out on ABC's "This Week" that Stone was convicted for lying to a GOP-led committee.
The big picture: Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) are the only Republican senators who have condemned the move, with Romney calling it "unprecedented, historic corruption" and Toomey noting that Stone was "duly convicted" by a jury.
Trump lashed out at both senators on Twitter late Saturday night, calling them RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and accusing former FBI officials of spying on his campaign
Schiff claimed Trump has "abused the pardon power" to protect himself from "criminal liability," which he said is an impeachable offense. But he added: "If the Republicans won't even say a word, of course they're not going to vote to impeach and convict."
What he's saying: "Republicans won't stand up for the rule of law, won't stand up for the independence of the Justice Department. It shouldn't matter, but this was a Republican-led investigation that Roger Stone lied to," Schiff said.
"The committee was then chaired by a Republican, and here you have no more than a couple Republicans willing to say a single word about someone who came before Congress and lied to them, intimidated witnesses and obstructed them. Why? Because he did it to cover for a president of their party."
"This is the distinction between now and Watergate. The Republicans then would not have stood for this, and Nixon understood that. Donald Trump understands that he has these Republicans cowed."
This is pretty much how I feel. Republicans will continue to allow any transgression of law Trump decides to commit, ignore facts, and aid in the coverup or conspiracy needed to protect him. This version of the GOPers may be the last when all is said and done.
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