what does it mean when he commutes stone's sentence?

[demtenjeep]

Does he still go to jail?

Is he free?

[TheBlackAdder]

1. Doesn't that mean Stone admits guilt & must freely participate in any othr criminal investigation?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. No, that's a pardon. If he'd accepted a pardon he'd have to admit guilt,

but a commuted sentence means only that he doesn't have to do the prison sentence. Bush II did the same thing for Scooter Libby.

[madinmaryland]

8. But it does mean he is still a convicted felon (7 felonies).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Yes, it does.

He's already been found guilty so he doesn't have to admit guilt (he's been adjudicated guilty), which he would have to do to accept a pardon.

[former9thward]

30. People keep posting this.

And it is not true. No one has to accept guilt with a pardon. Ford gave Nixon a pardon and Nixon did not admit guilt to anything. Ford gave the Vietnam draft dodgers pardons and they did not admit guilt to anything.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

32. Not so. Confession is imputed by acceptance. Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79 (1915):

"A pardon... carries an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it." You don't have to specifically confess when accepting the pardon, but as the Burdick case says, if you accept the pardon you are assumed to be confessing to the underlying crime.

[former9thward]

35. No.

The Washington Post ran an article called The five myths about Pardons. They said:

Myth No. 4

Pardons are only for guilty people; accepting one is an admission of guilt.

In 1915, the Supreme Court wrote in Burdick v. United States that a pardon “carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it.” Over the years, many have come to see a necessary relationship between a pardon and guilt. But Burdick was about a different issue: the ability to turn down a pardon. The language about imputing and confessing guilt was just an aside — what lawyers call dicta. The court meant that, as a practical matter, because pardons make people look guilty, a recipient might not want to accept one. But pardons have no formal, legal effect of declaring guilt.

Indeed, in rare cases pardons are used to exonerate people. This was Trump’s rationale for posthumously pardoning boxer Jack Johnson, the victim of a racially based railroading in 1913. Ford pardoned Iva Toguri d’Aquino (World War II’s “Tokyo Rose”) after “60 Minutes” revealed that she was an innocent victim of prosecutors who suborned perjured testimony in her treason case. President George H.W. Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger because he thought the former defense secretary, indicted in the Iran-contra affair, was a victim of “the criminalization of policy differences.” If the president pardons you because he thinks you are innocent, what guilt could accepting that pardon possibly admit?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-presidential-pardons/2018/06/06/18447f84-69ba-11e8-bf8c-f9ed2e672adf_story.html

[TheBlackAdder]

33. Thanks for clarifying it and clearing my confusion.

[The Magistrate]

5. Had He Been Pardoned, Sir, Yes

Commutation was chosen to avoid that.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It means he doesn't have to go to prison, although

he still has the conviction and a felony record.

[The Magistrate]

3. No Jail, Conviction Stands

[BigmanPigman]

6. Zippy doesn't have to go to jail.

Poor snowflake...

[donkeypoofed]

7. It could get thrown out in court. Stone's tweet ensures it.

He practically threatened to reveal all if he didn't get one. That tweet itself may be a crime.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. It can't be thrown out in court because, like pardons,

commutations are within a president's power under the Constitution: Article II, Section 2 states that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment". The Supreme Court has interpreted this language to include the power to grant commutations of sentences.

[cureautismnow]

17. " ...except in cases of impeachment"

If the impeachment charges passed by the House had included the evidence obtained from the Russian investigation, it seems to me that the commutation could have been nullified or at least been decided ultimately in the SCOTUS.

As it stands, you can do the crime and not do the time if your buddy is the Orange clown. I bet Manafort skates next.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. No, what that means is only that an impeachment can't be pardoned.

[cureautismnow]

19. Wouldn't that preclude Trump from receiving a future pardon from Pence?

He WAS impeached.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. No. That's not what it means. It means that a president can't undo

the results of an impeachment using the pardon power. If, for example, Bill Barr was impeached, convicted and removed from his position, Trump couldn't undo that result with a pardon (which would restore him to his job). He can only pardon or commute federal crimes.

[cureautismnow]

29. The framers messed up then.

They screwed up with condoning slavery, establishing an electoral college, and giving a corrupt POTUS the powers of a King.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. However....the judge may be able to quash the communtation

since it is in furtherance of a crime involving both Stone AND trump.

Link to tweet

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. How? The power is in the Constitution. The underlying crime might be prosecuted,

but the commutation itself, like a pardon, can't be undone.

[former9thward]

31. No she can't.

The tweets are ridiculous.

[Alex4Martinez]

16. Is there a screen cap of that tweet?

Mr.Stone has closed his twitter account to just anyone, nothing visible.

https://twitter.com/RealRogerStone1

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. It means he's still a convicted felon, but can still take the fifth

But I hope Congress brings him in anyway, in the hopes that he will lie again, so he can be prosecuted again..

A pardon would have absolved him of any and all crimes he may have committed, regardless of whether he had been charged/convicted, whereas a commutation merely terminates his sentence.

[Takket]

23. agreed, but wait until next year when we have a senate and whaite house not awash in corruption

[Fiendish Thingy]

28. The new AG will be an even more crucial appointment than usual. Nt

[mr_lebowski]

12. He has got the goods unlike Manafort and Cohen ...

Stone is the one that communicated directly with Wikileaks about the stolen documents from the DNC servers.

He knows too much for Trump to risk Stone getting pissed off at him and blabbing.

What a couple of fucking asshats they are.

[Xolodno]

13. Like everyone else said, its not a pardon.

...just means he doesn't have to do the time.

But on the bright side....he's still a convicted felon.

Which means, depending on the state....

He can't vote.

He is barred from certain jobs.....some of them political.

In short, he's now in permanent retirement.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

15. Until Trump loses in November then Stone at some point gets the full pardon.

[StarfishSaver]

21. No guns

[wishstar]

14. He's free now to devote all his time to devising dirty tricks to help the criminal in the WH

[Chainfire]

22. A felony record would not disqualify him

from being hired by Trump as an advisor and continuing his dirty tricks. Lets see if Trump's balls are that big.

[kentuck]

26. If he is pardoned, he cannot "take the Fifth"..?

Is that correct?

He must answer all questions when called forth to testify, if officially called, such as by Congress.

[Captain Zero]

27. All the guys in the prison yard won't be jacking to the Nixon tattoo on Rogers back now.

That's what it means.

[bluestarone]

34. I hope this means no voting AND no GUNS!!