Robert Mueller Has a Point to Make About Roger Stone

President Trump handed Roger Stone his Get Out of Jail Free card, and the man who tried to send the former fixer to jail is weighing in on the ensuing brouhaha following Stone's commutation. Writing in the Washington Post, former special counsel Robert Mueller opines that "Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so." Mueller notes that while because "his sentence has been commuted, he will not go to prison. But his conviction stands." Mueller writes that in the wake of the commuted sentence, he feels "compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper."

Calling Stone a "central figure" in his investigation of Russian election tampering, Mueller says "he communicated in 2016 with individuals known to us to be Russian intelligence officers, and he claimed advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ release of emails stolen by those Russian intelligence officers." Mueller cites Stone's relationship with the truth, saying he "lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks’ releases." His full column is here. (More Robert Mueller stories.)