Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has moved his agenda from being a staunch defender of the constitution. He used to have an honorable rebel style and upheld the law at all cost. Then, he flipped to being an acolyte to Donald Trump.
Graham said, according to Fox News:
”Under our system of justice President Trump has all the legal authority in the world to review this case, in terms of commuting the sentence or pardoning Mr. Stone for the underlying offense.’
The judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced the president’s friend Roger Stone to 40 months in prison based upon charges of lying to Congress and witness tampering.
Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Napolitano commented:
‘The Supreme Court has said you’re entitled to 12 jurors who are indifferent as to the outcome. This woman appears to have known the outcome in her own mind before the trial started. Why do I say that? Because the things she said about the president and about Roger Stone and her tweets.’
The judge sentenced Stone after more than a week of intense scrutiny of the case. The Justice Department (DOJ) made a judgment to overrule the federal prosecutors and requested with “far less” time for Stone. The prosecutors wanted seven to nine years. The defendants, career government attorneys, wanted far less than the amount the four career attorneys sought. Then, they stepped down from the case. The first judge resigned from the DOJ).
In a surprise move, Judge Berman Jackson decided to sentence Stone to 40 months or about three and one-half months.
Graham, a Trump foot soldier, noted that the Stone sentence was on the lower end of the sentencing guidelines of the crimes for which he has been convicted:
‘It is important to give both the government and the accused a fair trial free from influence. I believe this has been accomplished in Mr. Stone’s case. Like all Americans, Mr. Stone can appeal the fairness of his trial and the verdict rendered.’
Of course, Donald Trump has been complaining about the unfairness of the decision. He went after one of the jurors. Stone’s attorneys could have pulled the juror, but they chose to leave her in place. POTUS said he had not given any thought to pardoning Stone, but he certainly talked about it quite a bit.
Representative. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) another foot soldier for Trump, appeared on ABC’s “The View. He advocated pardoning Stone. He told the show’s stars Trump’s longtime friend should be pardoned, because “t here has been a double standard in this country.” He argued that people in the FBI had “not faced consequences:”
‘I would agree that Roger Stone should be pardoned, if for no other reason than there has been a double standard in this country where people like Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe … have not faced consequences.’
Not surprisingly, the Democrats disagreed.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
