Commutation of the prison sentence of a co-conspirator is legally a "self-pardon," and therefore unconstitutional. Without the protection of the Constitution, such an act is obstruction of justice, witness tampering, hindering prosecution, and—if under threat of a "flip"—bribery.
I mention this because there are those who understandably think that if a lawyer doesn't enumerate crimes when discussing the illegality of a presidential action, it means there were no crimes to enumerate. I should have been clearer yesterday—so hopefully this makes up for that.
I should therefore also be explicit in saying that a self-pardon is, additionally, a *constitutional* offense in the following categories: abuse of power, violation of the Oath of Office, and (again) obstruction of justice, as well as an unlawful application of the pardon power.
The easiest crime here for people to understand is actually bribery. In his pre-commutation interview with Howard Fineman, Stone made clear that he had something of definable value to offer Donald Trump in exchange for the "official act" of a pardon or commutation: his silence.
By trading the "official act" of a commutation for the definable value of Stone's silence— especially after Stone had made the transaction public and explicit—Trump committed bribery both as a matter of federal criminal statute and the U.S. Constitution's impeachment clause.
Folks on (say) Reddit will immediately reply that they have never heard of an application of the bribery statute of this sort before. The answer to that is: of course you haven't. The United States has never had a criminal presidency at this level. We are all in uncharted waters.
