After President Donald Trump complained on Twitter about the sentence of his longtime confidant Roger Stone, the Department of Justice reduced his prison time. All four prosecutors on the case resigned, and more than 2,000 former prosecutors and DOJ officials called for the resignation of Attorney General William Barr. On February 20, Stone was sentenced to over three years in prison.
In November, Stone was convicted of lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering regarding his contacts to the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks.
Stone was not one of the people Trump pardoned this week. Most notably, he gave clemency to former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and financier Michael Milken, better known as the “junk bond king.” According to Forbes, Trump is trying to “normalize” white collar crime through his pardons. Last week, Trump told reporters he wouldn't rule out pardoning Stone.
Since he was elected to the office in 2016, Trump has pardoned 19 people.The number of exonerations he has granted—when compared to other U.S. leaders—is relatively low. Franklin D. Roosevelt gave 2,819 pardons, according to the Department of Justice. Harry S. Truman granted 1,913 pardons and Dwight D. Eisenhower gave 1,110.
