Roger Stone Reacts to FBI Seizure Trump’s Clemency Letter

A long-standing ally of Donald Trump said he was puzzled that Trump’s former president granted him clemency.

The clemency letter that Trump issued in December 2020 was among around 20 boxes of items the agents removed during a raid of Trump’s Florida residence on Aug. 8, along with documents marked as classified, top secret, and confidential, although Trump said that the documents were “all declassified.”

In an interview with The Epoch Times, shortly after the FBI search warrant had been released, the lobbyist asked why the clemency letters became the focus of federal agency attention.

” Why these documents are being fought over between the President and the National Archives? I don’t know, Stone said.

No ‘Corrupt Bargain’

Trump issued the pardon in December 2020 to Stone as his term as the 45th U.S. president was nearing the end, saying that the then-68-year-old had “numerous medical conditions” and had been “treated very unfairly” due to “prosecutorial misconduct.”

Stone, who served briefly as a Trump campaign adviser in 2015, was arrested in January 2019 in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia in influencing the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller’s report in April 2019 stated there was no evidence Trump or his associates had knowingly conspired with Russia.

Stone admitted that he made false statements to Congress, but claimed that they were all innocuous .”

” One cannot lie to Congress regarding Russian collusion, even if there was no Russian collusion. Stone stated that Stone was being framed to press him into false testimony.

According to Stone, in July that year, prosecutors told his attorneys that if he agreed to testify falsely against the president regarding some 26 phone conversations they had during the 2016 presidential campaign, they would argue for his leniency with the judge, an offer he said he refused. Stone was sentenced to a three-year and four month term by Trump the day before his due date for starting serving his Russian interference investigation sentence.

Roger Stone, former adviser to President Donald Trump, leaves the Federal Court after a sentencing hearing in Washington, on Feb. 20, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)

He suggested that FBI agents might be investigating the records, which could indicate “a corrupt deal or some impropriety.” He insisted it was not true .”

“I had no communications whatsoever with the president or his lawyers or me, nor any third parties, from the moment I was arrested to the point he called me telling me that he was going to commute [my] sentence. He said that there were no communications.

“Any suggestion that I have something wrong with the clemency would be categorically false .”

‘It’s About Intimidation’

Stone had a taste of the FBI raid himself on the day of his arrest in 2019.

At six o’clock that morning, 29 FBI agents swarmed his residence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 17 armored vehicles, a government helicopter overhead, and two amphibious units. The agents were there for 13 hours, he recalled.

Stone stated that they searched the clothing and personal belongings of Melania Trump as well, just like Melania Trump.

He stressed that nothing he had taken from his Manhattan apartment, home and office was against him during trial.

” “It’s all about intimidation.” he stated. “The whole purpose of this is to intimidate the former president, which, having known him for 42 years, Donald Trump cannot be intimidated. They have actually energized his determination to run .”

again.

He sees the raid as “the latest in a series to disqualify Trump” from running for president in 2024, following the two impeachment attempts while Trump was in office and the ongoing Jan. 6 Committee probe.

One federal code listed in the search warrant concerns the willful and unlawful concealment, removal, or mutilation of public records, which could cause the individual to “forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”

A member of the Secret Service in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 9, 2022. (Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

But a hypothetical conviction under the statute is still not a legal basis barring the former president from seeking a second term, some legal experts have argued, as the statute cannot override or supersede qualifications for the presidency as set out in the Constitution–minimum age of 35, and being a natural-born citizen who has lived in the country for at least 14 years.

It is a sign that Trump’s enemies are looking for legal means to defeat his presidency ambitions, said Stone.

“They must not feel that they have any kind of viable case against the president regarding Jan. 6, and therefore they’re using this new rubric as an excuse to try to eliminate him as a candidate in 2024.”

Stone stated that his experience in the political prosecution revealed to him a “two-tiered justice” system. This contrasts what he perceived as a different treatment between the Democrats, like Hunter Biden, who was the second child of President Joe Biden and had been involved in foreign ventures during his father’s public office.

” If you are a liberal Democrat you don’t have to worry about the FBI and the justice system. You’re either a Trump supporter or a Republican.

The FBI did not respond to our request for comment. The Epoch Times reached out to the Department of Justice regarding Stone’s statements.