Pelosi calls Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s sentence ‘a threat to national security’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) said Sunday that President Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of his longtime adviser, Roger Stone, is a “threat to national security.”

“It’s staggering corruption, but I think it’s important for people also to know it’s a threat to national security,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“The whole impeachment process was about our national security. Why we are at the Supreme Court on these cases was to find out about the Russian connection, and we will continue to pursue that. This case was about the Russian connection,” Pelosi added. 

“It’s staggering corruption, but I think it’s important for people also to know that it’s a threat to our national security,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says about President Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s prison sentence. https://t.co/Gr8LElGH6i #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/jMXOXp5lmQ

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) July 12, 2020

Stone, who acted as a campaign adviser for Trump in the 2016 election, was convicted of multiple crimes, including witness tampering and lying to Congress. Trump on Friday commuted Stone’s sentence, which was set to begin on Tuesday. 

The president has long maintained that Stone was the victim of a political witch hunt. Stone has openly lobbied Trump for clemency. 

“People should know this isn’t just about lying to Congress, that means lying to the American people, and witness tampering and the rest. It’s about our national security,” Pelosi said on Sunday. 

She also said legislation will be introduced that would limit a president from commuting, pardoning or offering clemency to anyone who is convicted of a crime that affects the president’s behavior and culpability. 

She announced the legislation in a statement on Saturday. 

Stone was one of a half-dozen Trump associates to be charged in connection with former special counsel Robert Muller’s Russia investigation. Mueller concluded that the Trump campaign welcomed Russia’s election inference efforts, but he did not find sufficient evidence to charge campaign associates with conspiring with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.