trump took a call from roger stone. they appeared to talk about wikileaks and the release of the hacked material from the dnc. when trump ended the call, he turned to gates and said, they're going to release more information. this is why trump had to commute roger stone. roger stone can put donald trump in federal prison for lying. lying when? lying in his written responses to the special counsel when the president told robert mueller, i never heard anything about roger stone talking to anybody about timing or the release of the hacked dnc and clinton materials. that was a lie, and tonight trump is going to hit the pillow in the white house and have to wonder that if roger stone has one bad day and decides to dime out the president, trump could end his presidency and eventually go to prison. >> phil rucker, dan goldman, who is standing by, is from the world of law and not politics. i guess he lives near their intersection. he tweeted tonight that to him, this indicated that trump believes he is not going to get re-elect

roger stone was treated very unfairly. roger stone was brought into this witch hunt, this whole political witch hunt and the mueller scam. so i'm very happy with what i did. >> with me now is msnbc national political reporter josh letterman at the white house. josh, we're seeing reports that dr. fauci has been sidelined by the trump administration. trump hasn't consulted with him since early june, and a white house official released a statement saying that, quote, several white house officials are concerned about the number of times dr. fauci has been wrong on things. what is going on here? >> yeah, this is pretty remarkable. i have covered politics for a long time and seen a lot of candidates drop opo, as we call it, opposition research on their political opponents. i have never seen a white house do it to one of their own officials, much less in the middle of a pandemic, but that appears to be what's happening at the white house tries to relegate dr. fauci to the sidelines amid his increasingly dire warnings about the pa

trump took a call from roger stone. they talked about wikileaks and the release of the material from the dnc. when trump ended the call, he turned to gates and said, they're going to release more information. this is why trump had to commute roger stone. roger stone can put donald trump in federal prison for lying. lying when? lying in his written responses to the special counsel when the president told robert mueller, i never heard anything about roger stone talking to anybody about timing or the release of the hacked dnc and clinton materials. that was a lie, and tonight trump is going to hit the pillow in the white house and have to wonder that if roger stone has one bad day and decides to dime out the president, trump could end his presidency and eventually go to prison. >> phil rucker, dan goldman, who is standing by, is from the world of law and not politics. i guess he lives near their intersection. he tweeted tonight that to him, this indicated that trump believes he is not going to get re-elected. the brazennes

i am sure you called cnn, roger, and said that. here is, i do not believe you can get any fair trial in that court room or that system. i don't know. i think that probably every fiber of your being would want to be to fight to get the acquittal. you believe you should get. but i don't know if i give you that advice because i don't think there's anybody in that courtroom that is fair, roger. >> as you point out, comey, clapper, brennan, mccaig, peter strzok, lisa page, rosenstein, uhler himself, hill, they all lied under oath that they lied about material things, consequential things. they had an intent and motive to lie. i was charged with making the statements that were innocuous. if you look at a very carefully, is very clear what happened here. that is that aaron zelinsky, the corrupt prosecutor, the dirtiest of mueller's dirty cops other than weissmann share the fruits of the surveillance to me with adam schiff so that he could fashion gotcha questions, most of them of no consequence. and then after the set up in which i appear

he has been a friend a confidant and for a very long time his biggest political supporter roger stone can thank donald trump for his freedom the veteran political consultant was due to begin a prison sentence on cheese day but with the president's granting of clemency that has gone away in a statement the white house said roger stone is a victim of the russia hopes that the left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attack. to undermine the trump presidency there was never any collusion between the campaign or the trump administration with russia it continued mr stone will be put at serious medical risk in prison he's appealed this conviction and is seeking a new trial it concludes roger stone is no a free man. was caught up in robert miller's investigation into alleged collusion between russia and the trump campaign in january last year he was charged with one count of obstruction 5 of making false statements and one of threatening a witness the charges included lying to congress during the russian investigation about his back channel links to wiki leaks during the

one, i was in court when roger stone was on trial and steve bannon testified that roger stone is the trump campaign's access point to wikileaks. when you combine that with roger stone's statement yesterday to howard fineman that howard fineman then tweeted out where he quoted roger stone as saying roger stone doesn't want to pardon but a come tarks and then he quotes stone saying, look, trump knows i was under enormous pressure to turn on him, but i didn't. those things in combination, i think, raise a serious argument as to whether this is a corrupt commutation issued by president trump to try to hide, to try to bury incriminating information that roger stone could have presented about him. >> well, glen, let's take a listen to what congressman adam schiff had to say about all this last night on the rachel maddow show. >> what we're seeing today is an appalling overture to people essentially from the president saying if you lie for me, you cover up for me, i will reward you. on the other hand, if you're a rat and you cooperate, then like a mafia boss, i will come after you. >> all r

president donald trump has decided to commute the sentence for his longtime friend and adviser roger stone mr stone of course you remember probably sentenced to a prison sentence for lying to congress as part of the probe into allegations of rushing russian meddling in the 2016 u.s. presidential election campaign alan fischer joins us live now from falls church in virginia alan what do we know. we know that they're saying that this was done because he was risk he was due to start his sentence on tuesday the white house in a statement just issued you see peter just in the last 90 seconds or so said that roger stone is a victim of the russian hoax which is being protected by the left and the media insist there was never any collusion with russia and because of the serious medical risk the president has taken the decision to commute the sentence this is not the same as a pardon or cleaning conviction it also makes the point that roger stone has appealed his conviction and wants to go through the judicial system which he believes will exonerate him just to remind you it was back in novem

roger stone may have state law problems. he won't have them arising, i think, from his direct testimony to congress. but, you know, what we can do, i think, when this president is gone is we can enact a whole series of what i'm calling our post-watergate reforms where we try to attack these abuses of the pardon power or the power to commute sentence. i introduced a bill, for example, that would require in a case like this where the president is a witness, subject, or target of an investigation and takes action to pardon or commute someone, that the complete investigative files are turned over to congress so that congress can determine whether this is yet another act of obstruction of justice. so there are remedies, but it's hard to see what remedy we can use now beyond the ultimate remedy in november when we get to vote these bums out of office. >> let me just ask you about what we started with this hour, and you mentioned it a moment ago. the continuing and apparently sort of systematically designed actions of william barr

so roger stone has been pardoned. no one in their right mind who is a political adviser to the president of any ideological stripe would advise him to do this right now. the politics of it are terrible. but the logic here, i mean, the president is going to do what he wants and he doesn't like people to snitch and the guy kept quiet for him, but there is also this logic of jumping everyone into the gang. like everybody increasingly has to say absurd things and they have to count increasingly terrible and antisocial behavior from the president because then they're stuck to him. so now they will all go out and say, it's fine that roger stone was pardoned for what he did. and it will be a tightening of the loyalty oath that has bound everyone to the president. >> this is a call to personality, and we should treat it as much. and i'm reminded of the great phrase by the late, great democratic senator daniel patrick moynihan who talked about defining decency down. we have seen that, that these senators will explicate donald

i am sure you called cnn, roger, and saidy that. here is, i do not believe you can get any fair trial in that court room or that system. i don't know. i think that probably every fiber of your being would want to be to fight to get the acquittal you believe you should get. but i don't know if i give you that advice because i don't think there's anybody in that courtroom that is fair, roger. >> as you point out, comey, clapper, brennan, mccaig, strzok, page, rosenstein, mueller himself, hillary, they all lied under oath that they lied about material things, consequential things. they had an intent and motive to lie. i was charged with making the statements that were innocuous. if you look at a very carefully, is very clear what happened here. that is that aaron zelinsky, the corrupt prosecutor, the dirtiesg of mueller's dirty cops other than weissmann shared the fruitp of the surveillance to me with adam schiff so that he could fashion gotcha questions, most of them of no consequence. and then after the set up innn which i appeared v

>> yeah i am roger. i'm sorry. >> it's a wonderful question because if it were fiction that might not give journal because fiction with be it journal that is using a forum. defoe certainly wrote fiction and it's based on his uncle's notes or they were real. they were known to have actuality. i'm not sure the distinction makes much difference when you're reading. the five of us too well know as well as a wonderful audience for this book festival. there is some events that are so big and so preposterous and so unbelievable that they seem like fiction when we are experiencing them and this is one of them. when somebody writes a journal of the pandemic it's no doubt people would think you are making that up but of course you are not making it up. >> does feel like something we have read a lot about in post-apocalyptic fiction. >> absolutely. >> so verrico much of roger's work as a writing teacher imagine and roger correct me if i'm wrong and false providing prompts for your students and in many ways i think

the president is granting cl clemency to roger stone. let's go to josh with more from the white house. josh, good morning. this decision came from a pushback from the president's aides. >> reporter: that is right, alex. it was days ago that bill barr no stranger to intervening in cases of president trump felt the prosecution was righteous and the sentence the judge gave roger stone was a fair sentence. we know that political advisers to the president had been telling him this could be a very bad idea. there could have been political blow back if he went ahead and offered this clemency to his friend a few months before the election. nonetheless, the white house last night in the statement calling roger stone the victim of the russia hoax. it called an attempt to undermine the trump presidency. the white house going on to announce in the statement that roger stone has already suffered greatly. he was treated very unfairly as were many others in the case. the white house saying roger stone is now a free man. that free man, roger stone, emer

the president has talked about the fact -- friends with roger ste and feels like roger stone was not treated fairly and targeted because of his relationship with the president. so there could be both of those things going on. but i think the real question here is what is joe biden going to do? that was a smart question for you to ask. and i think we're going to have to sit and wait and see if joe biden latches on to this or if he continues to talk about the thing that most americans are thinking about in their everyday lives and the coronavirus and it is the ability of the country to get past this virus and the handling that president trump has done thus far and in the months to come. robert: so cleve, this is a campaign shaping up to be about power. it's also shaping up to be a campaign on race and culture. the president began the week with his tweets onubba wallace defending the use of the confederate flag. you've been to the villages in florida. where -- that racist chant was uttered that president trump tweeted and then deleted. how is race and culture playing on the ground in fl

power in order to extend mercy and to absolve roger stone. not of the conviction, but so that he doesn't have to serve a sentence. spew when you brought up bob mueller. previous to you coming out of me was reporter kristin fisher. senate judiciary chair lindsey graham says that he will grant the democrat request not to have former special counsel robert mueller testified after he defended the russia investigation in the op-ed he wrote over the weekend. here is adam schiff reacting. >> calmly scriptable call me skeptical.even after ths announced, he said he thought it was a perfectly good idea. i suspect that all lindsey graham wants to do is continue his counterfactual counter narrative, that donald trump was somehow the victim. >> harris: robert, before i come to you with a question, i will make this comment. when you hear adam schiff there, it's almost like the democrats don't want to take, "yes, you can have bob mueller." what are you looking for here from both sides of the aisle? >> i think is more than happy to go before the senate. if i

roger stone is now a free man. but the concern here, alex, not just that the president seems to have been doing a favor for a friend, but whether the president wanted to offer clemency to roger stone, essentially in exchange for what roger stone has said was his decision not to cooperate fully with prosecutors by providing them information, potentially incriminating information about president donald trump. take a listen to what house intelligence chairman adam sc hichlt hiff has to say. >> if you lie for the president, cover up for the president, if you withhold information that could incriminate the president. he will make sure that unlike other people, you don't have to go. there are now two standards of justice in this country, one for the criminal pals of the president and one for everybody else. >> reporter: but even as this outrage mounts from a lot of democrats, even a few republicans, alex, there's not a whole lot that anybody is really going to be able to do about this, because the pardon power that the p

theresident has talked about the fact -- friends with roger e stone andls like roger stone was not treated fairly and targeted because o his relationship wh the president. so there could be both of those things going on. but i think the real question here is what is joe biden going to do? that was smart question for you to ask. and i think we're going to have to sit and wait and see if joe biden latches on to this or if he continues to talk about the thing that most americans are thinking about in their everyday lives andhe coronavirus and it is the ability of the country to get past this virus and the ne thus far and in the trump months to come. robert: so cleve, this is a campaign shaping uto be about power. it's also shaping up to be a campaign on race and culture. the president began the week with his tweets onubba llace defending the use of the confederate flag. you've been to the villages in florida. where -- that racist chant was uttered that prident trump tweeted and then deleted. how is race and culture playing on the ground in florida? >> sure. one the things that saw at the vill

united states versus roger stone. aaron zelinsky, the career prosecutor, told congress that pressure from higher ups in the justice department resulted in the virtually unprecedented decision to override the original sentencing recommendation in stone's case, and file a new sentencing memo that included statements and assertions at odds with the record and contrary to department of justice policy. zelensky testified, quote, what i heard, repeatedly, was that roger stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the president. i was told that the acting u.s. attorney for the district of columbia, timothy shea, who bill barr installed in that office as his personal footman, after he ousted the real u.s. attorney. timothy shea was receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the justice department to cut stone a break. and that the u.s. attorney's sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations. he said, quote, i was also told that the acting u.s. at

roger stone was treated horribly. roger stone was treated very unfairly. roger stone was brought into this witch hunt, this whole political witch hunt and the mueller scam. it's a scam, because it's been proven false. and he was treated very unfairly, just like general flynn is treated unfairly, just like papadopoulos was treated unfairly. they've all been treated unfairly, and what i did, i will tell you this, people are extremely happy, because in this country, they want justice. and roger stone was not treated properly. so, i'm very happy with what i did. i commuted his sentence, and by commuting, he now has the right to go and, hey, look, he had a -- quiet, quiet. he had a poor woman -- he had a poor woman who was horrendous. she should have never been on the jury. the judge should have so ruled. the judge didn't do that. take a look at the record. the judge didn't do that. take a look at the forewoman. he should have had another trial. roger stone was treated very badly. now, take a look at comey. take a look at mccabe. take a look at the two lovers,

the decision from the white house comes just 4 days before roger stone was expected to present himself at a federal prison and start serving his sentence of 40 months in prison after being convicted of obstruction of justice now the white house presented a lengthy report describing roger stone as essentially a political operative who briefly worked with the trump campaign in 2016 and became a victim of the russian collusion hoax the white house to question the partiality of the decision and sentence which roger stone faced mr stone was judged by the same prosecutors from the miller investigation toast with finding evidence of collusion with russia because no such evidence exists however they could not charge him for any conclusion related crime instead they charged him for his conduct during their investigation this improvement is that if the special counsel had not been pursuing an absolutely baseless investigation mr stone would not be facing time in prison now according to the white house report bob mahler's prosecutors charged roger stone simply with process crimes that were quote

and yesterday when we saw the reporting from howard fineman who interviewed roger stone and roger stone said flat out i want the president to commute my sentence and let me quote this sentence from roger stone, he said, "the president knows, i, roger stone, was under enormous pressure to turn on him, it would have eased my situation considerably but i didn't." so that is roger stone basically giving the president an ultimatum. i kept your secrets, i want a commutation of my sentence and if i don't get it, donald trump, maybe i will start talking. this is a corrupt, corrupt act by a corrupt president. >>> so there's a call for an immediate briefing on the commutation of the sentence. they wrote "president donald trump abused the powers of his office in an apparent effort to reward roger stone for his refusal to cooperate with investigators investigating the president's own conduct. no other president hasek xercisd the clemency power for such a patently personal and self-serving purpose." is this or isn't this within the president's power? >> it is within the president's power. what if an

his old friend roger stone. trump making his first public comments a short time ago on his decision to commute the sentence. >> what i did --ly tell you this. people are extremely happy, because in this country that. >> want justice. and roger stone was not treated properly. so i'm very happy with what i did. >> we'll have a little more of the president's remarks on stone shortly. now officially, the white house says concern over coronavirus in prison is one of the reasons behind trump's decision to commute stone's three-year-plus sentence just days before he was set to begin serving it. the move of course outraged democrats and even trump's faithful attorney general appears to have questions about it. >> i think the prosecution was righteous, and i think the sentence that the judge ultimately gave was fair. >> there are two systems of justice now in america, one for criminal friends of the president like michael flynn and now roger stone, and one for everybody else. >> coming up, i'll get reaction from another

roger stone is now a free man. and anderson, i think what you're seeing here is what we've continued to see from this white house and this administration to sort of rewrite the narrative around the russia investigation and sort of make it seem like no one in the president's orbit actually did anything wrong and they were just targeted unfairly. >> and stone is still challenging his conviction in appeals court, right? >> reporter: he is. he's gone after the judge that was overseeing his case. he's gone after the jury, saying they were not unbiased towards him. and he's trying to essentially get that conviction overturned. the important thing to remember about the commutation, it means he's not going to be going to prison right now but he's still a convicted felon. i think that's what played out in this call with him and the president, the indication that stone is going to continue to fight to clear his name. >> sara, thank you very much. >>> back to the pandemic racing across the country. during the president's visi

and then, roger stone claimed he quit because he said roger stone was publicity seeking so they do have this back-and-forth relationship. and the president doesn't like to deal with things directly. he likes to do so indirectly. so he knows by commuting the sentence, the blame and responsibility goes to president trump, himself. and i think there were people inside the white house trying to appeal to him to get him not to do it. of course, they are not successful. >> legal perspective now from our chief legal analyst, jeff toobin. also, u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. so, obviously, the president's prerogative. what do you make of it, though? >> well, it's the three words that sum up the trump presidency. shocking but not surprising. i guess that's four words. and you know, this is the most corrupt and cronyistic act in perhaps all of recent history. you know, richard nixon, at the height of watergate, never pardoned or commuted the sentences of any of the people involved in watergate. he thought he could never get away with it. burr burr but our standards have sunk

but just the relationship between the president and roger stone? obviously this is somebody who has been very close to him for years. can you just talk a little bit about that? >> stone and president trump have gone back for decades, knowing each other when they were in new york city's small and close knit republican circles. my understanding, i'm aware of any active connection or communication between the two then since stone found himself in doj's cross hairs, but he's clearly someone who the president is deeply aware of, who the president knows quite well and who the president saw as a valuable adviser. >> okay. just to get this across to folks, too, we have now received word from the white house. the white house put out a statement confirming the sentence has been commuted. the president has personally informed roger stone of that and the white house has put out a statement it has been done. i want to thank you all. appreciate you all being with us. that is going to do it for us. but don't go anywhere. "all in" with chris hayes is up next. >>>

did he break the law or not, roger stone? >> emily: well, the white house certainly argues it was a process crying. i have to echo kennedy and the governor's comments here. kennedy is right, being weird is not illegal. i have to point out that, for example, earlier on this network this morning, we had a democrat who said it was a "humanitarian issue" to release inmates over the age of 60 given the covid crisis. this is a 67-year-old man headed to a federal facility, but in the last two weeks, 20 inmates tested positive for covid. prior to that they were zero. why is this any different from the 21 states that have released inmates at the state level -- >> harris: where any of them in for process crimes? when you look at your research? i will lean on you. were any of them in the situation where they were nonviolent crimes where they also should be let go? >> emily: absolutely, and taking it a step further, there were plenty who have been caught up in this no bail release for covid that were actually violent. that goes back to m

roger stone is now a free man.

roger stone was treated very unfairly. i went back and checked with the attorney general, said earlier in the week in an interview with abc news, the attorney general bill barr said i think the prosecution was righteous and i think the sentence the judge ultimately gave was fair. a lot more on this coming up. kristen, thank you very much. don't go too far away. >>> as we mentioned earlier cases across many states are surging this week. florida reported 10,000 new cases in one single day. the state is being seen as the epicenter of the virus in the united states and that isn't stopping one of the top tourist attractions anywhere. we're talking about disney world in orlando -- from opening up today. natasha chen has been following the reopening for us. natasha, what precautions have been taken? i assume a lot. >> reporter: absolutely. there is so much that will be new for anyone who steps foot on disney property, wolf. that includes even before you get there. if you have a ticket you have to make an advanced reservation to g

watch this. >> roger stone was treated horribly. roger stone was treated very unfairly. roger stone was brought into this witch hunt, this whole political witch hunt and the muller scam, it's a scam because it's been proven false and he was treated very unfairly. what i did -- what i did, i will tell you this, people are extremely happy because in this country they want justice and roger stone was not treated properly. >> well, as you know, the stone case was prosecuted while i was attorney general and i supported it. i think it was established, he was convicted of obstructing congress and witness tampering, and i thought that was a righteous prosecution. and i was happy that he was convicted. >> stone was only days away from starting a 40-month prison sentence for crimes including witness tampering and lying to congress. joining us now, cnn's senior political reporter nia henderson. tonight robert muller made a rare public statement reacting to this writing in the washington post, and i'm quoting him now, i feel compelled to respond to broad claims that our investigatio

roger stone walks free after u.s. president donald trump cancels his friend's jail term still is found guilty of lying to congress. welcome to the program on next peiser 25 years ago today serb forces captured the bosnian town of stubborn needs and carried out europe's worst massacre since the 2nd world war a ceremony was held to remember the thousands of muslims killed today serve a general ratko blot it was eventually convicted of war crimes and genocide but the families of the victims say they are still not at peace. with the bosnian national anthem played at a ceremony to remember the fountains of muslims killed a misstep. the commemorations had to be scaled back to coronavirus but world leaders like former u.s. president bill clinton who was in office at the time of the genocide contributed via video message. it has been profoundly moving. at every town every opportunity to continue their mum who are still those across the world who grieve for the family roles kill to support the ongoing efforts of sing justice t

he is going to grant roger stone clemency. so let's look at the bigger picture, here, which is corruption and abuse of power. >> yeah, don. we saw this one coming. look. this is what corruption looks like. this is just a raw abuse of power. and what makes this pardon, i think, different from many others or perhaps all others that came before it is let's remember what roger stone was convicted for. he was convicted of lying to congress, in order to protect president donald trump. and then, president trump turns around and commutes roger stone's sentence. it's hard to think of a more perfect example of self-dealing than that. >> john, this president continues to use the levers of power and the justice department to protect himself and his cronies. punish the people who speak out. or try to reign him in. isn't this what you see from authoritarian regimes? >> in a word, yes. but he is using the powers of our presidency and the constitution to get away with it. but no president has abused his pardoning power, which is in the consti

he and roger stone go way back. they have known each other since the '80s and met through the president's former attorneys but he fired rodger stone from his campaign he claimed and roger stone claimed he quit because he said he was publicity speaking. they have a back and forth relationship and the president doesn't like to deal with things directly. he likes to do so indirectly so the blame and responsibility goes to president trump himself. i think there are people inside the white house who were trying to appeal to him to get him not to do it, though, of course, they were not successful. >> thanks very much. appreciate it. legal perspective from our former special prosecutor jeffrey prerogative, what do you make of it? >> it the three words that sum up the trump presidency, shocking but not surprising. i guess that the four words. and, you know, this is the most corrupt act in perhaps all of recent history. you know, richard nixon at the height of watergate never pardoned or commuted the sentences of any of the

madam chair, ranking member rogers. my colleagues on the subcommittee and the subcommittee staff, i thank you all for your hardwork on the bill . chairman lowey, it's been an honor working with you . you have told us how greatness and toughness can be compatible. we've learned many thingsfrom the pandemic . it is how connected the world is really so although foreign assistance is one percent of the federal budget is still very important to our own security and allies around the world. and i'm sure we can all agree be pandemic will make everything we want to do much more difficult to implement so i am very supportive of the emergency funding in this bill. there are many good issues in this bill and my colleagues really describe many of them read i'm just going to highlight a few area the bill funds the $3.3 billion commitment for security assistance to israel and my memorandum of understanding signed in the obama administration recognizing the importance ofthe security of our long-standing allies . it also recognizes dev

stone, in line with federal sentencing guidelines. >> i remember being at roger stone's sentencing and being outside the courthouse and just waiting for the moment when the president was going to weigh in in real-time because it just felt inevitable. and then of course the president weighed in on twitter, specifically on judge amy jackson and calling into question her fairness, calling into question her credibility, essentially suggesting that she was out to get roger stone. >> it's an unprecedented action on the part of the executive who traditionally would keep his hands off. >> criticizing a federal judge in the midst of the sentencing of roger stone, it's a blatant attempt to interfere in the carriage of justice. a president just doesn't do that. >> one of the most damaging things that the president has done has been to disparage and really verbally attack individual judges. it undermines the rule of law because judges need to be independent. >> hours later, attorney general barr ignited a firestorm when justice officials intervened and overruled their own prosecutors, asking for a

congresswoman harman, did the president commute roger stone's sentence because roger stone covered for him during the investigation? >> well, only the president can answer that. but it certainly looks like that. i thought mueller's op ed was compelling and the fact that attorney general barr as karl just said called this prosecution righteous ought to make clear there weren't many people in the white house of certainly or in the pardon process which was not followed who thought this was a good idea. trump has issued very few pardons. according to the washington post today, 36. 31 of them are to political or personal friends and that's a low number of pardons but the process he has followed or the lack of process is shocking and let me just say one more thing. we'll get to the supreme court decision. i know we will. but there is an issue about whether along the way president trump can pardon himself, maybe after the election. let's imagine. there was an office of legal counsel opinion august 5th, 1974, just before nixon resigned, that said the president cannot pardon himself. congress m

he was afraid that roger stone would flip on him. and the fact that he didn't meant that he was in line for pressure from the justice department to -- some say inevitable events of today. a commutation during a friday night news dump. but don't mistake it. don't normalize this. this is dangerous abuse of power, again. >> yeah. elie, we have seen this story before, the firing of u.s. attorney geoffrey berman on a friday night. well sat here, did an entire hour on it. he pardoned sheriff joe arpaio on a friday. he has fired inspectors general on a friday. so this move to commute roger stone, a self-proclaimed difficulty trickster shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. it is a pattern. and from their point of view, why not keep doing it over and over if they can get away with it? >> yeah, don, thus far it's been consequence-free. you're definitely right about that friday night pattern. i don't think anybody announces anything they're super proud of at 9:00 p.m. on a friday night. thing is an obvious pattern there. also, this one is a l

roger b. taney, you have to understand the world. he is in some ways not quite a wreck loose but reserved, he takes his seat on the bench very seriously. he doesn't want to appear to be tainted by popular opinion or by politics. but he continues to be an active member of the bar in baltimore to proceed over proceedings there it is local catholic church he is a figurehead, he is much sought after, he's a meshed in this social world not simply in an ivory tower in washington. >> here is a very interesting fact about roger b. taney, in 1818 he freezes on slaves. >> he did. the ones he inherited before he became a judge. but there is something else about him, while he was a bit of a recluse, he wasn't necessarily afraid to stick out an ideological position. one case comes to mind that was a case decided in 1842 that was basically the fugitive slave clause. there is a slave that escaped pennsylvania and pennsylvania refused to return the slave to the captures. they had to decide the question of how

and i got say i love that shot of roger stone wearing a roger stone face mask and a roger stone t-shirt. that is going in the dictionary under chutzpah one of these days. put that in context alongside black lives matter, the breonna taylor investigation, for which there have still been no arrests. the prosecution over george floyd's death, et cetera. do they connect? >> i absolutely do think that they do connect in that basically there is two forms of justice in this country, and that is a really stark example of that. that's really what the protests have been about the whole time. it's not that oh, the police are necessarily a bastion of evil. it's not that oh, if only they would just follow. will people follow the laws that have been written? and are the laws being treated equally in their enforcement? in the terms of black lives, that's clearly not the case where if you are a black person and you have a broken taillight, you could be in a confrontation with the police that leaves you dead. that's not the case for white individuals. and in the case of roger stone, anyone else who had

now, roger stone had been scheduled to begin serving a prison term next week. he had been seeking to have that delayed until september, but it had been scheduled to begin next week. stone had been convicted almost a year and a half ago on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to congress. again, nbc news now reporting that the president has called roger stone and has told him that he will commute that sentence. i believe we have betsy swan with us right now who has been following and covering this extensively. betsy, thank you for joining us. again, the news here, i want to be clear, commutation as opposed to pardon. there has been a lot of talk this might be a presidential pardon. this will be a commutation apparently. what is the difference between those two? >> that's right. a pardon totally wipes the slate clean, and it removes a guilty

roger stone has already suffered greatly. he was treated very unfairly as were many others in this case. roger stone is now a free man! end quote. wonder who dictated that. the statement also says by the way that covid-19 risks played a part in trump's decision which is odd continuing that trump continues to say that the virus will just disappear. if you wanted anymore evidence that none of this makes sense, last night stone while wearing a mask and a shirt both bearing his name had this to say and just a warning, none of what you are about to hear is based in reality. >> it is an act of justice. people running around and screaming about the rule of law are ridiculous. they weren't screaming about the rule of law when loretta lynch and bill clinton were wiring hillary's missing email case on the floor -- on the tarmac. what about the rule of law when barack obama in the largest abuse of power in american history uses the authority of the united states and the capability of our intelligence agency to spy on the republican cand

president trump has commuted the sentence of his ally, roger stone. stone had been accused of lying to congress during an investigation into russian interference. he has addressed the media. this is what he is going to say. i'm going to do three things. i'm going to write a book, another book, about this experience, because people need to understand the extraordinary abuses with no adjuster shall system. i am going to help general flynn get exoneration, because the refusal of thejudge in his case to dismiss his case and try to drag it through the summer try to drag it through the summer is outrageous. and i'm going to do everything i possibly can on an independent basis to get the president re—elected, which i think is crucial. venice has been carrying out the first full test of its multi—billion dollar flood defence system. the project is made up of 78 mobile barriers, which can be raised in the lagoon to stop tidal surges from the adriatic sea. the system won't come into full operation for at least another year and a half. hundreds of people hav

the structure and it's a massacre on this day in 1995 the world remembers the victims also coming up roger stone walks free after u.s. president donald trump canceled his friend's jail term stone was found guilty of lying to congress. welcome to the program i'm exposed 25 years ago today serb forces captured the bosnian town of strieber anita and carried out europe's worst massacre since the 2nd world war a ceremony was held to remember the thousands of muslims killed serb general ratko lot as was eventually convicted of war crimes and genocide but the families of the victims say they are still at peace. the bosnian national anthem played at a ceremony to remember the thousands of muslims killed on this day. the commemorations had to be scaled back to coronavirus but world leaders like former u.s. president bill clinton who was in office at the time of the genocide contributed 5 video message. it has been profoundly moving. at every town every opportunity to continue to add my voice to those across the world who grieve for the families of those kill to support the ongoing efforts of sing j

roger stone is now a free man. and anderson, i think what you're seeing here is what we've continued to see from this white house and this administration to sort of rewrite the narrative around the russia investigation and sort of make it seem like no one in the president's orbit actually did anything wrong and they were just target unfairly. >> and stone is still challenging his conviction in appeals court, right? >> reporter: he is. he's gone after the judge that was overseeing his case. he's gone after the jury saying they were not unbiased towards him. and he's trying to essentially get that conviction overturned. the important thing to remember about the comitation means he's not going to be going to prison right now but he's still a convicted felon. i think that's what played out in this call with him and the president that stone is going to continue to fight to clear his name. >>> back to the pandemic racing across the country. during the president's visit to florida today he made mow reference to it. cases

did that apply to roger stone? >> i can't reveal all the -- >> i'm not asking what his health was but did that apply? >> no. did what apply? >> his health. was that the reason? >> health is a reason to -- >> for roger stone? asking for a lower sentence. let me go on. >> i stated why -- i stated why i felt -- >> hold on a second. age if it's conditions that are of an unusual degree and distinguish the case from usual cases. >> the judge agreed with me, congressman! the judge agreed with me! >> i'm not asking -- the issue here is whether roger stone was treated different because he was friends with the president. when you asked to reduce the sentence you said enhancements were technically applicable. mr. attorney general, can you think of any other cases where the defendant threatened to kill a witness, threatened a judge, lied to a judge, where the deje department of justice claimed they were -- >> the judge agreed with us. >> i'm not asking about the judge. i'll asking about what you did to reduce the sentence of r

roger, your reaction? >> roger: i'm not going to be in a position where i defend anyone who attacks police were people who are engaged in rioting. it's not productive. i think, in the context of a national conversation, which is basically what you and david and i are engaging in right now, much more attention and praise should go to, for example, something like how mississippi dealt with removing the confederate component of their flag. where people went through the established legitimate political process and gathered the mandate to make a change like that. anyone who goes out and thinks that painting or throwing paint or toppling a statue is going to move this debate forward is wrong, and for those of us who are reasonable folks, roughly between the 40-yard lines, we need to kind of be willing to partner with one another and say that there's a process for going through these things about how to change our parts and memorials and statues. no one should be attacking police were tearing down statu statues.

thanks very much. >>> straight ahead, president trump's gift to roger stone. we take a deeper look at the power of commutation. look at te power of commutation as a caricature artist, i appreciate what makes each person unique. that's why i like liberty mutual. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ if you have a garden you know, weeds are low down little scoundrels. draw the line with roundup. the sure shot wand extends with a protective shield to target weeds precisely and kill them right down to the root. roundup brand. trusted for over 40 years. whether it's bribes ...or an overdue makeover. get all your pet essentials right when you need them, with curbside pickup at petsmart. just order online, drive up, check-in, and pick up. (vo) ...especially when your easilyg distracted teenager has the car. at subaru, we're taking on distracted driving... ...with sensors that alert

to say that roger stone. committed a crime is to say that it would be the same as saying covering up about about an alien abduction about being abducted by aliens basically how can you lie about something that didn't exist even after a lie has been completely disproven like russia gave the total collapse of the mother of korea even then the narratives still linger they linger on they're adopted as his kind of belief set and that's the whole basis for the stone prosecution so you know and the jury was tainted clearly tainted the foreman of the jury was a democratic party hopper to it but that wasn't seen by the judge is grounds for a mistrial so this is being portrayed as the some miscarriage or transgression of justice by the trump administration but in fact roger stone did nothing wrong at the end of the day. almost 2 months after the resurgence of the black lives matter movement sparked by the killing of george floyd in the u.s. the impact is still being felt around the world in the german capital steps are

liberty. ♪ >>> roger stone was treated horribly. roger stone was treated very unfairly. roger stone was brought into this witch-hunt, this whole political witch-hunt and the mueller scam. it's a scam, because it's been proven false. >> president trump defending his decision to commute the prison sentence of longtime ally roger stone. >> now former special counsel robert mueller is pushing back against the claims that his investigation was illegitimate. in a new op-ed and in a rare outspoken moment he writes, "the russia investigation was of paramount importance. stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. he remain as convicted felon and rightly so." >> joining us now, senior political analyst with nbc news digital. robert mueller says he was compelled to respond claims roger stone was a "victim of our office." the investigation uncovered. he writes he also identified numerous links between the russian government and trump campaign personnel. stone among them. did not establish members of the trump campaign conspired with the russian governmen