SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney harshly criticized President Donald Trump on Saturday for commuting the prison sentence of a longtime political confidant, calling it “historic corruption.”
Roger Stone, who was sentenced in February to 40 months for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, was set to report to 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,” Romney tweeted.
Trump responded to Romney’s scathing comment late Saturday.
“Do RINO’S Pat Toomey & Mitt Romney have any problem with the fact that we caught Obama, Biden, & Company illegally spying on my campaign? Do they care if Comey, McCabe, Page & her lover, Peter S, the whole group, ran rampant, wild & unchecked - lying & leaking all the way? NO!” the president tweeted.
Toomey, a GOP senator from Pennsylvania, said the president clearly has the legal and constitutional authority to grant clemency for federal crimes but it should be used judiciously and very rarely.
“While I understand the frustration with the badly flawed Russia-collusion investigation, in my view, commuting Roger Stone’s sentence is a mistake,” he said in a statement. “He was duly convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a congressional investigation conducted by a Republican-led committee.”
Romney was the first U.S. senator to vote to remove a president of his own party from office in an impeachment trial. The Utah Republican voted to convict Trump of abuse of power and acquit the president of obstruction of Congress last February.
What tipped the scales for Romney was Trump allegedly seeking Ukraine’s help in the 2020 election.
Stone told the Associated Press that Trump called him earlier Friday to inform him of the commutation.
“Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place. It is the other side that are criminals, including Biden and Obama, who spied on my campaign — AND GOT CAUGHT!” Trump tweeted Saturday.
Democrats also denounced the decision as another unprecedented intervention in the criminal justice system.
“President Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of top campaign advisor Roger Stone, who could directly implicate him in criminal misconduct, is an act of staggering corruption,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said.
In Utah, the centrist United Utah party expressed support for Romney’s condemnation of Trump.
”Sen. Romney has done the right thing in speaking out against President Trump’s misuse of his pardon power,” said Richard Davis, party chairman. ”This is certainly not what the Framers of our Constitution had in mind when they gave the pardon power to the executive. It was not intended for cronyism.”
Davis also called on other members of the Utah delegation to condemn the president’s action.
”The wonder is not that Romney spoke up,” he said. “The wonder is that others have not taken action as well to condemn this action by President Trump.”