President Trump’s pardoning of conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza was meant to send a message to special counsel Robert Mueller and the Trump associates charged as a result of his ongoing investigation into the 2016 race, former Trump election campaign adviser Roger Stone said Thursday.
“It has to be a signal to Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort and even Robert S. Mueller III: Indict people for crimes that don’t pertain to Russian collusion and this is what could happen,” Mr. Stone told The Washington Post.
“The special counsel has awesome powers, as you know, but the president has even more awesome powers,” he added.
Mr. Stone’s comments came hours after Mr. Trump announced over Twitter that he would grant a full pardon to Mr. D’Souza, 57, effectively absolving him of a 2014 conviction for campaign finance fraud.
“What should have been a quick, minor fine, like everybody else with the election stuff. … What they did to him was horrible,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One later.
The Russian government interfered in the 2016 race to help the Trump campaign, according to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials. The FBI began investigating Moscow’s alleged election meddling and related matters roughly four months before Mr. Trump was defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and Mr. Mueller took control of that probe in May 2017 after the president abruptly fired his FBI director, James Comey.
Mr. Mueller’s office has subsequently filed criminal charges against 22 individuals and entities, including Mr. Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser, and Mr. Manafort, the former manager of Mr. Trump’s election campaign. Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with the special counsel’s office, according to the Justice Department; Mr. Manafort, meanwhile, has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts stemming from his work as a lobbyist during the decade before the race.
Mr. Stone, on his part, is reportedly of interest to federal investigators. Several witnesses summoned to appear before Mr. Mueller’s team recently told reporters afterwards that investigators asked questions about Mr. Stone, a member of the Trump campaign through 2015, including his alleged ties to WikiLeaks, the antisecrecy website that published documents during the 2016 race damaging to the Clinton campaign allegedly sourced by Russia state-sponsored hackers.
On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee sent an email to Mr. Stone last week as part of its own probe into the 2016 race reiterating an earlier request for documents and appearance before members.
Mr. Stone told The Washington Times Thursday that he is “anxious” to appear before the committee — ideally in a public setting — and that he planned to voluntarily provide the committee with documents
The president has either pardoned or granted clemency to six people since taking office in January 2017, including lawmaker Joe Arpaio, meatpacking executive Sholom Rubashkin, Navy sailor Kristian Saucier, former White House official I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and late boxer Jack Johnson.
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