President Trump told reporters on Christmas Eve that it never occurred to him to pardon Roger Stone, though said his former political adviser was put in a ‘very tough situation.’
‘Am I going to pardon him? I hadn’t thought of it,’ Trump said. ‘I think it’s very tough what they did to Roger Stone compared to what they do to other people on their side. I think it’s very tough.’
Stone was convicted in November of tampering with a witness and lying to Congress, crimes associated with the hack of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails and their release on Wikileaks, and brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
On Tuesday, while Trump remained complimentary of Stone – ‘He’s a nice guy, a lot of people like him’ – he also tried to put distance between the two men.
‘You know Roger Stone was not involved in my campaign in any way other then the very, very beginning before, I think, long before I announced, a little bit,’ Trump said at one point.
President Trump said he ‘hadn’t thought of’ pardoning Roger Stone, his former political adviser who will be sentenced in February
Roger Stone was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering by a jury in November and awaits sentencing
He then brought it up again.
‘And again, Roger Stone was not a part of it, the campaign,’ the president told reporters at Mar-a-Lago as he dialed branches of the armed services to wish them a Merry Christmas. ‘He was somebody I’ve known over the years. Very, very, very early on, long before, I think, long before I announced he was involved in a minor way.’
In fact Stone helped launch Trump’s campaign, but his official role ended on August 8, 2015, less than two months into the president’s 2016 bid.
But the Mueller report and Stone’s subsequent trial, showed that Stone remained in contact with members of the Trump campaign throughout.
Stone is due to be sentenced in February.
‘He got hit very hard, as did General Flynn, as did a lot of other people that got hit very, very hard and now they’re finding out it was all a big hoax,’ Trump complained. ‘They’re finding out it was a horrible thing. We were spied on, my campaign, was spied on.’
President Trump answered questions from reporters after making Christmas calls to servicemembers on the morning of Christmas Eve
Roger Stone advised President Trump’s early political career and worked in an official capacity for his 2016 presidential campaign for under two months
Roger Stone, standing alongside his wife Nydia (right), directly after a jury found him guilty of seven felony counts
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Stone are part of a list of Trump 2016 associates who have been convicted of crimes. Also among them, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos.
But Trump has latched on to a new inspector general report from Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General at the Department Of Justice. In testimony, Horowitz said the FBI should have considered ending surveillance on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page months earlier than it did. The IG also found that the information used on the warrants wasn’t always accurate.
‘And now we found out they’re a bunch of dirty cops,’ Trump said Tuesday. ‘Paid for by the DNC, paid for by Hillary Clinton, in many cases and in much.’
Trump has long objected to the FBI using the so-called dirty dossier as evidence in the Russia probe.
‘They did a phony dossier, they used a dossier for FISA, and now as you know the FISA court and your top judge is very much involved,’ the president said. ‘And they’re hopefully going to do something about it.’
Trump was referring to FISA court presiding Judge Rosemary Collier telling the FBI it had until January 10 to lay out what could be done to prevent future FISA abuse. It was rare rebuke from the head of the secretive court. And conservatives greeted the news happily.
‘But these were dirty people, these were bad people, these were evil people,’ Trump said during his Christmas Eve chat. ‘And I hope that someday I’m going to consider it my greatest or one of my greatest achievesments, getting rid of them.’
‘Cause we have no place in our country for people like that,’ the president added.