Sen. Mitt Romney on Saturday rebuked President Trump for commuting Roger Stone’s sentence, apparently making the Utah Republican the first prominent elected official in the GOP to slam the decision.
Mr. Romney, the Republican nominee for president in 2012, spoke out on Twitter after Mr. Trump commuted Stone’s sentence Friday night, sparing the president’s former adviser from starting a 40-month term in federal prison next week.
“Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president,” Mr. Romney tweeted.
No other prominent Republican on Capitol Hill had publicly denounced the president’s commutation as of later Saturday afternoon, however, which some members of the party openly cheered: Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both allies of Mr. Trump, each separately expressed support for commuting Stone’s sentence through their social media accounts.
Stone, who has known Mr. Trump for decades, was found guilty by a jury last year of counts of obstruction, witness tampering and perjury and was scheduled to start his prison sentence Tuesday.
The White House announced Friday evening that Mr. Trump had commuted Stone’s sentence, and the president subsequently defended that decision on Twitter early Saturday.
“Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place,” Mr. Trump alleged.
Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, has more than once distanced himself from other Republicans since his term in the Senate began in early 2019. He was notably the only GOP member of the Senate not to vote fully to acquit Mr. Trump after the president was impeached late last year in the House of Representatives.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, was among lawmakers on the left who noted Mr. Romney’s lone objection Saturday.
“Mitt Romney and I hold different opinions on virtually everything. But I agree with him strongly that Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence is ’unprecedented, historic corruption.’ The key political question of our time is: Where are all the other Republicans?” Mr. Sanders asked on Twitter.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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