https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... rc404=true
Former special counsel Robert Mueller lashed out in a rare op-ed in The Washington Post Saturday against President Donald Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s prison sentence on seven felonies. Stone “remains a convicted felon,” Mueller snapped.
The Russia investigation into possible collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election was of “paramount importance,” Mueller wrote. “Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”
Mueller said he was “compelled” to respond to “broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office.”
He added: “Russia’s actions were a threat to America’s democracy. It was critical that they be investigated and understood.”
By late 2016, the FBI had “evidence that the Russians had signaled to a Trump campaign adviser that they could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to the Democratic candidate,” Hillary Clinton.“And the FBI knew that the Russians had done just that,” Mueller said.
The investigation established that the “Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome,” and Roger Stone was a key part of that investigation.
Stone “lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks,” which leaked Democratic Party emails, Mueller wrote. He lied when he denied he had “communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks’ releases. ... And he tampered with a witness,” Mueller added.
“We made every decision in Stone’s case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law and in accordance with the rule of law,” he concluded. “The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false.”
