Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, of Utah, slammed President Trump on Saturday over the commutation of his longtime ally and political confidant Roger Stone, calling it “unprecedented historic corruption.”
“Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president,” Romney tweeted Saturday morning.
Romney is the only Republican lawmaker so far to condemn the president’s commutation for Stone, who was sentenced to more than three years in prison for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of official proceeding. He was due to report to prison Tuesday before Trump stepped in to commute his sentence.
Trump’s allies in Congress have largely refrained from criticizing the commutation, instead pointing blame at the prosecutors who brought the charges against Stone in their investigation into Russian election interference.
Democrats railed against Trump’s move Friday night, accusing the president of setting up an alternate system of justice for his allies.
“The American ideal of equal justice under the law is once again being undermined by a lawless president who regards the Justice Department as his personal plaything,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Read Romney’s tweet below:
Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) July 11, 2020
