Donald Trump is escalating his assault on America’s legal system in ways that continue to shock. Earlier this week, the president lashed out at Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg by demanding, ridiculously, that the liberal judges recuse themselves from cases involving himself or the administration. Trump then went after the jury forewoman and federal judge in the Roger Stone case, ignoring his own attorney general’s request that he stay out of active federal cases.
Now, according to sources, the West Wing is bracing for Trump to pardon Stone or commute his three-year prison sentence. “Commuting the sentence, if there is any action taken, is the only remotely safe thing. A full pardon is corruption,” a former West Wing official told me.
That’s a nice sentiment. But they don’t care. Stone has known Trump for a very long time and Trump has trusted him with his dirtiest political work. I don’t think he’ll settle for commutation. And I don’t think he’ll want to rot in jail for several months either:
Republicans close to the White House say officials are lobbying Trump not to go ahead with a Stone rescue. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Jared Kushner have argued to Trump that a pardon or commutation would create an unnecessary scandal during an election year. “They all think it’ll be a problem and that there will be hearings,” a Republican briefed on the internal conversations told me. Another source briefed on the matter said that Trump is being told, “We don’t need the hassle. Do it after the election.” Sources also said West Wing officials have told Trump that stepping in could lead Attorney General William Barr to resign—an outcome one Republican close to the White House described as “catastrophic.”
And anyway, his top advisor is pushing him hard in the other direction:
Trump’s desire to intervene on Stone’s behalf is being stoked by Stone’s longtime friend, Fox News host Tucker Carlson. In private, Carlson has lobbied White House officials to convince Trump to keep Stone out of jail. It’s the same case he’s made on Fox News. Last week, Carlson bashed Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the federal judge presiding over Stone’s case. “She is an open partisan, who has so flagrantly violated the bounds of constitutional law and fairness, it’s shocking she’s still on the bench. If there’s anyone in Washington who deserves to be impeached, it’s Amy Berman Jackson,” he said on air. Carlson continued the attack on air Tuesday night, calling Jackson “corrupt, dishonest, and authoritarian.” Carlson has also tried to discredit the jury’s forewoman, who Stone’s lawyers claimed failed to disclose anti-Trump tweets during jury selection. (Yesterday, Jackson erupted over Carlson’s attacks during a courtroom hearing. “Any attempts to invade the privacy of the jurors or to harass or intimidate them is completely antithetical to our system of justice,” she said.)
Carlson says Trump runs the country like a TV producer which means he heightens aa crisis in order to swoop down and be the hero. Oh lord:
At the same time that Trump’s lawlessness is metastasizing, he is raging about the spread of the coronavirus. Trump has responded to criticism of how his administration is ill prepared to handle the health crisis by blaming the media for tanking the stock market. In private, Trump has blamed acting secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf for failing to have a clear message during a contentious Senate hearing yesterday, a source said.
Inside the West Wing, there’s panic that Trump’s compulsive fictionalizing could trigger an even bigger crisis if the coronavirus truly explodes. “This is a black swan event,” a former West Wing official said. “The White House is concerned because they can’t control the virus and Trump wants everyone to get out there and say positive things, but people inside don’t have confidence the statements are accurate.”
The official went on: “It’s one thing to get people out there saying, ‘we’re going to win the election’ or ‘the economy is great.’ It’s another to have the government say, ‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ but then people start dying.” While we spoke, the official told me that he was searching for face masks on Amazon, but the site was sold out. “I have to go,” he said, and hung up.
That’s very reassuring.
Trump believes he can lie his way out of anything. And he has good reason to believe that. He’s lied and cheated his way out of one self-inflicted crisis after another. And who knows? Maybe he’ll get lucky again this time. We need to hope so because otherwise people are going to die. Not that he cares. If he can find a way to spin that in his favor, he’ll do that too. And his 60 million cult followers will believe him.