Former Federal Prosecutor Cynthia Alksne told MSNBC that the recent announcement by President Donald Trump to commute Roger Stone's sentence is possibly an example of obstruction of justice.
Host Steve Kornacki asked if the commutation would erase the crime from Stone's record or if that would require a pardon.
"Well, the question is, does he really care?" Alksne asked. "I mean, Roger Stone takes such great pride in being a dirty trickster. I'm not sure he cares about his conviction, the truth of the matter is, as long as he doesn't have to go to jail. He can continue to appeal and make those attempts, but this isn't a get out of jail free card. Lots of people are arguing, well, maybe we need to use this as part of an obstruction of prosecution against the president and this is exhibit A, especially given his statements today, that the reason why he thinks the president is going to do it is because, basically, he had goods on the president and he kept silent. So perhaps down the road, there is a prosecution, an obstruction prosecution by a different White House and Justice Department, but it seems unlikely to me, but that's obviously possible."
See the video below along with other comments from law experts:
Other lawyers and legal scholars similarly commented: