Why Trump must not pardon Roger Stone

By Larry Klayman

The president of the United States is the chief executive officer who presides over a number of executive branch agencies, including my once proud alma mater, the U.S. Department of Justice. Indeed, the oath of office, which was administered to Donald J. Trump on Jan. 20, 2017, when he ascended to the presidency, is as follows:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

In short, the president took an oath to uphold the laws of the United States, embodied and reflected in our Constitution.

Roger Stone, contrary to the spin that is peddled by his surrogates at Fox News and elsewhere, was justly convicted of seven felony counts of perjury, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. I know because I sat in the courtroom listening and observing during his two-week trial, while the pundits seeking to gain political favor with the president by supporting his supposed friend Stone did not. Regardless of whether the judge, Amy Berman Jackson, or the jury foreperson, was biased against Stone, the hard fact of life is that Stone’s lawyers, who could have themselves been indicted for providing false information to Congress on their client’s behalf, did not present one witness, repeat, one witness, including Stone himself, in defense of the prosecutors’ case in chief.

Though Stone sat at counsel’s table frequently smirking and smiling during the trial, the bottom line is that regardless of any bias, the now-convicted felon had no defense. This in a nutshell is why he does not want a new trial, even in another forum outside of Washington, D.C., because he was convicted by his own words and deeds.

Whatever one thinks of Judge Jackson – and I am not a fan in my own right, having had bad experiences with her in a number of cases, including one involving Hillary Clinton and Benghazi – the truth is, and this is something Stone and his surrogates have difficulty admitting, he would be convicted again in rapid order even if given a retrial before another judge and jury.

And that this why Stone’s only objective has ever been to get a presidential pardon from the man for whom he was a lobbyist in the gambling industry for many years, Donald J. Trump.

But for the president to provide such a favor to his friend, who committed perjury, threatened and defamed witnesses such as Randy Credico and my client Dr. Jerome Corsi, would be to telegraph that The Donald has little to no respect for the rule of law. Indeed, coming at a time when President Trump has touted his respect and desire to enforce the rule of law with regard to those who would burn, loot, maim and kill in our nation’s streets, an act of pardon would say that the rule of law only applies to those whom he rightly opposes – the socialists, communists, radical blacks, radical Muslims, radicals on the Jewish left, radical atheists, radical LGBTQs and radical feminists who are bent on tearing the republic apart so they can seize control of the United States.

I have said it before and I will say it again, and in fact over an over until President Trump, whom I continue to support, takes it to heart: One is who one associates with. And The Donald’s prior association with the likes of his sleazy fixer lawyer Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort (Stone’s prior partner at Black, Manafort, Stone, Kelly and Atwater), and Rick Gates, to name just a few of the unsavory bottom-feeders that infested his presidential campaign, and Stone himself, does not speak well of the ethical underpinnings of the president.

As the old expression goes: “When you hang around poop, you start to smell like it.”

So this is a good-natured warning to President Trump. While you have done many good things in office, you need independent voters in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and other so-called swing states to win reelection, so don’t blow it with a pardon for Roger Stone. He is not worth it! Believe me, I know. And, if you want to see why, just pick up a copy of my autobiography, “Whores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment!” which chronicles my personal experience with this self-styled Mafia admirer and dirty trickster.

Or go on the Pacer court internet system and find the defamation complaints in Florida and elsewhere that I have been forced to file against him for my brave client Dr. Corsi and me, whom Stone smeared with disgusting slander and libel because he feared that Corsi would testify against him in his criminal trial – something Jerry never wanted to do. Stone, having also threatened the judge with internet postings of cross-hairs to her head, went on a jihad to attempt to destroy Dr. Corsi and me, even putting up convicted felons like fourth-rate internet/radio host Pete Santilli to file a fraudulent bar complaint against me. Santilli and Stone have been sued for this too!

Indeed, this is Stone’s modus operandi, as Randy Credico, a witness in Stone’s criminal trial, knows full well. Here Stone threatened that he would file a bar complaint against Credico’s best friend, Margaret Kunstler, a lawyer, if Credico would not lie under oath or take the Fifth. Stone also threatened to harm Credico’s service dog.

So you can see that the facts concerning Stone’s conviction on seven felony counts of perjury witness, tampering and obstruction of justice are quite different that the dribble that emanates from his mindless and exploitive surrogates.

As a final thought, if you really want to know who the real Roger Stone is, then digest this. As I write about in my autobiography, “Whores,” after Stone served as my campaign manager during my 2003 U.S. Senate race in Florida, before he was let go, I learned that he also had been secretly representing the conman, fraudster and race baiter Al Sharpton in his bid for political office. Take that to the bank, Mr. President, as Sharpton and his black, racist, anti-white friends try to tear down your presidency and the country as a whole.

Mr. President, do not pardon Stone, not just out of principle but because it could cost you reelection. That is my friendly advice. For more advice, listen to my podcast below:

Larry Klayman

Larry Klayman is a former Justice Department prosecutor and the founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch. His latest book is "It Takes A Revolution: Forget the Scandal Industry!" Read more of Larry Klayman's articles here.


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