The Resistance is better off if Trump does pardon Roger Stone today. Pardoning a co-conspirator is a risky move that could cost Trump his ability to pardon himself/family on his way out the door, and other legal and political complications. Pardons aren’t magic wands 🙂
Ask yourself why Trump hasn’t pardoned a single one of his own co-conspirators in all the time he’s been in office. There’s the risk of the courts striking the pardon down, then using the case to more narrowly define pardon power. And that’s just the start of the risks for Trump.
Stone could still potentially face state charges in New York, where he has a secondary residence. This isn’t just theoretical; Stone’s NYC residence was raided on the day he was arrested for a reason.
And if Stone doesn’t face any remaining criminal liability, then Fifth Amendment won’t apply. So if Trump loses the election and goes on criminal trial, Stone will be legally required to testify at that trial, as direct result of Trump pardoning him.
If Trump pardons Stone today, it’ll mean Trump is so scared of Stone’s dirt on him, he’s willing to accept all the negative consequences of pardoning Stone, just to keep him quiet for now. Either that, or it’ll mean Trump has inchoherently lost the last of his marbles.
This is before getting to the political fallout. Ask yourself how many additional votes Trump can gain in 2020 by pardoning Stone. Zero votes! His base is already voting for him.
And we get to campaign on the premise that Trump just confessed to his own guilt by pardoning Stone.
And we get to campaign on the premise that Trump just confessed to his own guilt by pardoning Stone.
We’ve heard nonstop hysteria on MSNBC and CNN for three years about how Trump was going to pardon his co-conspirators at any minute. It never happened. This was obviously nonsense aimed at driving ratings. But how long did we spend parayzed by this false narrative? Turn it off.
And no, I’m not just suddenly saying now that we’re better off if Trump pardons a co-conspirator, to try to put some positive spin on what might happen today. I’ve been openly rooting for Trump to make the mistake of pardoning a co-conspirator for the past few years now.
If Trump does finally pardon a co-conspirator today, the TV pundits will yell “see, we told you magic pardons were coming.” No, they were wrong. They spent three years insisting it would happen at any minute. They knowingly milked at false narrative for ratings, at your expense.
By the way, lesser political pundits always do this. Every day they tell you the sky is falling that day, so you’ll stay glued to them. When the doomsday thing doesn’t happen, you’re too relieved to realize you were being played. And if it does ever happen, they take credit.
Roger Stone has been sentenced to prison, Bill Barr’s stunt failed, and now Donald Trump has a no-win decision to make palmerreport.com/analysis/roger…
