White House Issues Scathing Response to Mueller's Op-Ed on Roger Stone
The White House trashed former special counsel Robert Mueller’s “corrupt investigation” into supposed Russian collusion with the Trump campaign after Mueller took to The Washington Post to attack President Donald Trump’s action in commuting the sentence of longtime associate Roger Stone.
Stone, who faced charges as part of the wide-ranging probe conducted by Mueller, was found guilty of lying to investigators and witness tampering last year.
After the trial was over, it was learned that jury forewoman Tomeka Hart had a history of Democratic activism and anti-Trump sentiments.
In February, Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison, a term he has described as a “death penalty,” according to NBC News. His sentence was to have begun this week, but Trump granted him clemency on Friday.
“The work of the special counsel’s office — its report, indictments, guilty pleas and convictions — should speak for itself,” Mueller wrote in The Post on Saturday. “But I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office.
“The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”
Mueller claimed that his investigation “identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel — Stone among them” and alleged that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
“We made every decision in Stone’s case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law and in accordance with the rule of law,” the former special counsel wrote. “The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false.”
Deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere fired back in a statement, according to the New York Post.
“Robert Mueller and his corrupt investigation failed to hold anyone in the Obama-Biden Administration accountable for their negligence toward Russian interference or for spying on the Trump Campaign based on a Democrat-funded dossier full of lies, and instead wasted taxpayer dollars trying to undo an election,” Deere said.
“Mr. Mueller should keep his promise to the American people and let the report, which fully exonerated the President, stand instead of pontificating in the editorial pages with more spin,” he said.
Trump on Sunday refused to apologize for commuting Stone’s sentence and said the trial of his longtime confidant was unfair.
“He had a forewoman — he had a forewoman who was horrendous. She should have never been on the jury. The judge should’ve so ruled. The judge didn’t do that. Take a look at the record. The judge didn’t do that. Take a look at the forewoman. He should’ve had another trial. Roger Stone was treated very badly,” the president said, according to a White House media pool report.
“Take a look at Biden, Sleepy Joe. Take a look at Obama. And they spied on Donald Trump’s campaign. Those are the people — let me just tell you something: Those are the people that should be in trouble,” he said.
During Monday’s media briefing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Stone’s clemency was “a very important moment for justice in this country. You had a completely bogus Russia witch hunt that found nothing. And in order to justify the waste of taxpayer dollars, you had Robert Mueller charging people with process crimes.
“And it’s really curious to me that with Roger Stone — you know, he’s charged of false statements, but [former FBI Deputy Director Andrew] McCabe was charged of false statements, lying to federal investigators; [former CIA Director John] Brennan, false statements to Congress; [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper, false statements to Congress,” McEnany said, according to a White House media pool report.
“But last time I checked, they didn’t have 29 FBI agents wearing tactical gear showing up there at their house in a predawn raid wielding M4 rifles, sweeping across their lawn, as happened to Roger Stone. They didn’t have four agents using battering rams breaking down their front door over false statements. And they didn’t have helicopters hovering over their houses and two police boats that roared up,” she said.
In a Friday statement announcing Stone’s clemency, McEnany lashed out at Mueller.
“The collusion delusion spawned endless and farcical investigations, conducted at great taxpayer expense, looking for evidence that did not exist,” she said.
“As it became clear that these witch hunts would never bear fruit, the Special Counsel’s Office resorted to process-based charges leveled at high-profile people in an attempt to manufacture the false impression of criminality lurking below the surface.
“These charges were the product of recklessness borne of frustration and malice. This is why the out-of-control Mueller prosecutors, desperate for splashy headlines to compensate for a failed investigation, set their sights on Mr. Stone.”
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