Gregg Jarrett reacts after Roger Stone's prison sentence is commuted
Fox News Legal Analyst Gregg Jarrett told 'Fox & Friends Weekend' Stone never got a 'fair trial' in Washington
The commutation of political advisor Roger Stone was a "courageous move" on behalf of President Trump and his administration, Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said Saturday.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends Weekend," Jarrett told host Pete Hegseth that the evidence against Stone was "weak" to begin with.
TRUMP COMMUTES ROGER STONE'S SENTENCE DAYS BEFORE PRISON TERM SET TO BEGIN
"His problem is that he was being tried in Washington, D.C. Good luck if you are a friend of Trump's in that venue," said Jarrett. "90 percent of the voters in the last election cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton."
In this Nov. 7, 2019 file photo, Roger Stone arrives at Federal Court for his federal trial in Washington. The Justice Department said Tuesday it will take the extraordinary step of lowering the amount of prison time it will seek for Roger Stone, an announcement that came just hours after President Donald Trump complained that the recommended sentence for his longtime ally and confidant was “very horrible and unfair." (AP)
The White House announced Friday that the president had signed an Executive Grant of Clemency commuting the "unjust sentence", just days before he was slated to report to prison to serve more than three years for charges stemming from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Stone was sentenced in February after being convicted in November 2019 on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering, and making false statements to Congress. Stone, however, has appealed his conviction and continues to deny any wrongdoing. He was set to report to prison on July 14.
In a lengthy statement, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president had made the decision to commute Stone's sentence "in light of the egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial."
McEnany added that the charges against Stone were the "product of recklessness borne of frustration and malice," noting that 67-year-old Stone would“be put at serious medical risk in prison.”
"He has appealed his conviction and is seeking a new trial. He maintains his innocence and has stated that he expects to be fully exonerated by the justice system," she wrote. "Mr. Stone, like every American, deserves a fair trial and every opportunity to vindicate himself before the courts.”
"And, what was more troubling I think for the president was that the jury foreperson, a lawyer, was virulently anti-Trump," Jarrett pointed out. "You know, communicating on social media things like #KlanPresident, calling Trump and his supporters -- which include Roger Stone -- racists. This was concealed during the course of the trial."
"I don't think this was a fair trial. If you put Roger Stone in front of a jury elsewhere, he would have been acquitted in less than an hour," he said.
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"And so, I think the president did it for that reason and also reasons of compassion. [A] 67-year-old man going into a prison system rife with coronavirus. He is not in the best of health," Jarrett explained.
"You know, our system of justice is not perfect. This is exactly why the Founders gave the president of the United States unlimited, unfettered power: principally reasons of mercy to pardon people and commute sentences," he concluded.
Fox News' Brooke Singman, John Roberts, David Spunt, and Bill Mears contributed to this report.
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