With no additional indictments forthcoming, Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted to Attorney General William Barr on Friday the long awaited final report on his investigation into alleged Russian interference and collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. The whole of Washington D.C. and the mainstream media quickly came to a standstill pondering its implications.
While many on the left fretted that it appeared as though President Donald Trump would “get away with” the alleged crimes of which he’d been accused, Fox News host Tucker Carlson wondered about what would happen to all of the American citizens who’d been unfortunately swept up in and ruined by the politically motivated investigation.
No Americans indicted for collusion
Carlson, who has long been skeptical of the underlying claims of “Russian collusion” that prompted the investigation in the first place, spent a great deal of time on his program highlighting the many elected Democrats, former government officials and media figures who repeatedly assured the American public that President Trump and members of his family would be indicted.
He emphasized numerous times throughout the program that not one single American citizen had been indicted for anything even remotely related to colluding with Russia during the 2016 election, and noted that any crimes for which Americans had been indicted by Mueller were either unrelated offenses committed prior to the election or process crimes that arose directly from the investigation that was launched on a bogus premise.
As such, Carlson openly wondered whether President Trump would issue presidential pardons for those individuals, such as longtime friend and confidante Roger Stone, who was subjected to a pre-dawn FBI raid and financially ruined for alleged lies to authorities as part of the Mueller investigation.
Pardon for Stone?
“What about the victims of this monstrosity, and there are many,” Carlson asked. “Roger Stone is facing life in prison. He was indicted by an investigation designed to find collusion, indicted on minor charges.”
“He was dragged from his own home in a morning FBI raid. They put an amphibious vehicle outside his house and pointed automatic weapons in his face, all to find collusion. But there was no collusion,” he continued.
“Stone is still looking at life in prison. Where is Roger Stone’s pardon, his pardon from the president? Let’s hope it comes very soon,” Carlson added.
Tucker: No American citizen has been charged with collusion
Robert Mueller submits his report to Attorney General Barr; no charges related to Russia collusion. #Tucker #FoxNews FOX News operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Radio, FOX News Headlines 24/7, FOXNews.com and the direct-to-consumer streaming service, FOX Nation.
Trump biding his time
Carlson later spoke with Fox News reporter Ed Henry on the topic of presidential pardons for those who’d been subjected to utter hell by virtue of the Mueller probe. Though Henry cautioned that no official word had come from the White House on that front just yet, he nevertheless intimated that at least some of the individuals swept up by Mueller could be pardoned by President Trump at some point in the future.
Carlson asked about pardons, “Specifically of Roger Stone, who looks like he could literally spend the rest of his life in prison for a process crime that wouldn’t have arisen without this investigation — which turned out to be pointless — in the first place. Have you heard anybody in the White House talk about the president pardoning Roger Stone?”
Without hesitation, Henry replied, “No.” He quickly added, “I’ve heard people outside the White House tell me very clearly that the president has been advised to let this investigation play out before he discusses pardons or does anything.” He continued:
I think, based on the conversations I’ve had, I don’t want to get ahead of it, it’s entirely possible that you could see (Paul) Manafort, Stone and others pardoned. I’m not saying they will be, just that it’s been discussed by some of the president’s allies outside the White House. But what has been made clear to me in my reporting, is that — and I think this was wise counsel to the president of the United States — if you start talking about pardons and/or actually pardon people before Mueller is finished, it’s obviously gonna make it look like you’re impeding that investigation, and he didn’t get ahead of it.
Carlson agreed completely with Henry’s assertion that it had been wise of President Trump to wait for Mueller to complete the investigation prior to openly discussing the issuance of pardons. Now that the investigation has essentially been concluded, it may well be that the president will begin to consider granting pardons, or at least commutations of prison sentences, to some of the individuals like Stone who are facing jail time and financial ruin for process crimes related to Mueller’s investigation.
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