roger stone from the d.c. u.s. attorney's office. last month the lead prosecutor on the case, aaron zelinsky, came forward as a current justice department employee and told congress as a whistle-blower, quote, in the many cases i have been privileged to work on in my career, i have never seen political influence play any role in prosecutorial decision making, with one exception, 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. zelinsky 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,

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

stone was prosecute

excuses by that justice department or by stone about why stone was getting special treatment so stone was headed for jail so for him it was really now was the time friday night is often the time you'll see bad news dumped in washington with the idea that people won't be paying attention and mr trump had really no choice but to go ahead and do this favor for roger stone if he was going to stop stone from going to prison and i'm sure mr mr trump was worried that if you didn't help stone stone has a lot of dirt on president trump and he could spell at any time and i'm sure trump wanted to avoid that clearly it would mr trump any political friends or supporters but is it fair melanie if i say that's maybe not the point because this in trump well the guest can operate in parallel outside the political process going forward to november the. you know for any other president they would be considering how this might look for their reelection chances when this hurt their reelection and with president trump he has all always issues and those concerns he has been willing to go to bat for michael

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

president donald trump in the past half hour has commuted the sentence of his ally roger stone mr stone who advise the trump presidential campaign was sentenced to jail for lying 5 times to congress as part of the russia pro correspondent alan fischer with the latest at the white house in a statement just issued that roger stone is a victim of the russian hoax which has been perpetrated by the left and the media insists there was never any collusion with russia and because of the serious medical risks the president has taken the decision to commute the sentence this is not the same as a pardon or creating a conviction it also makes the point that roger stone has appeal his conviction and he wants to go through the judicial system which he believes will exonerate him the u.n. security council has again failed to extend its cross border humanitarian aid program for syria putting millions of people at risk to votes of failed to pass the 1st was vetoed by russia and china the remaining council member states voted in favor aid agencies are warning of dire consequences for displaced people. t

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

stone's. what do you think that would be relevant that the judge would say that person should not be on the jury. >> that is juror misconduct. if the question was asked on the information was withheld, that's juror misconduct, yes. >> sean: okay, now as it relates to all the other matters, there's a lot of other people that have been referred to as well for telling lies. you know their names. how come we don't see 29 guys in tactical gear, frogman and cnn cameras. is it a usual process for a processed crime of lying to congress which in and of itself, is it a usual process for a judge to put a gag order on a defendant so they can even proclaim their innocence? >> no. with defenders like roger stone, oftentimes he left himself apart. you say we have a warrant out for you are arresting the need to turn yourself in. you just send a tactical commute outside commute outside s.w.a.t. unit coming at don't do it in the middle of the night. i didn't see that in drug cases, and he certainly didn't see i

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

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

president donald trump is to new to the sentence of his ally roger stone stone who advised trump's presidential campaign was sentenced to jail for lying to congress and the russians over. 2 u.n. security council votes to extend humanitarian aid to syria failed to pass aid agencies say the decision could lead to dire consequences for millions. and thousands of people protesting for a 4th day in service capital belgrade they're calling on the president alexander to resign. campaigning as kicked off in hong kong for its legislative council elections this weekend the pro-democracy camp is holding a primary vote to decide on its candidates for the territories newly imposed national security law has been overshadowing the lead up to the september vote 7 o'clock reports from hong kong. by. these images of a mob indiscriminately attacking protesters journalists and civilians in uniform last july marked a turning point in the hong kong demonstrations journalist with her it was live streaming when she was targeted i know that deprived castille live broadcast of me being beaten up by gangs and lobsters it

roger stone knows that.y trial, he got a jury trial, and a jury of his peers convicted him seven times forfulne feloni. and the notion that lindsey would actually say that really this was justified, he's 70 years old and a first-time offender. give me a break! lip lindsey graham should be so ashamed of himself. it is beyond belief he has gone this low. he is down there in shrlugville. he's a slug along with the slug in the white house. >> there's no better place to hit pause in this conversation. my friend, claire mccaskill, my friend, neal katyal, thank you both so much for spending some time with us. >>> after the break, it's happening again. another big flashing red light for donald trump's re-election team, where the ground is starting to shift underneath him. that story, next. ting to shift h him. that story, next ♪ thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase in

but that's stone.e's also michael flynn and paul manafort in the sense that all of these cases could be subject to pardons or clemency. what do you think this does to the justice department to have this kind of activity going on by the president and in some cases by the department itself? >> well, it's incredibly corrosive to the men and women in the department of justice to sit back and watch legitimate, righteous investigations and prosecutions to be constantly debased by the president. it's got to make them wonder about the very, the you been stands and foundations of the rule of law they're trying to enforce. it's no secret why the president is frustrated with the conviction of stone and the guilty plea of flynn and the incredibly complicated status of that matter. the president doesn't like the fact that these investigations exposed his eventual reliance on russian assistance to get elected. russians weighed in, in our political system in 2016 in a way that i think everybody understands now and th

and yesterday when we saw the reporting from howard fineman who interviewed roger stone and roger stoneent 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 anything can be done about it? >>

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

stone. late last week, his sentence wat officially commuted by president trump rightfully so. we've been calling for s it on their show. stone was unfairly targeted. he was persecuted by mueller's team of trump hating bureaucrats. his life was upended by years long investigation and trial which was a sham trial. on january 25, 2019, well, let's when that predawn raid, 29 agents, tactical gear armed with m4 rifles around his home. rushed into his house, take him into custody. news cnn cameras somehow just happen to be there just at the right moment to capture it all. a mere coincidence? offer process crimes. in other words, the things that people like comey, mccabe, clapper, and brennan have been accused of and may have done and even referrals the cases some of them so despite getting arrested like a dangerous terrorist or lying to congress, stone's process crimes, five counts of making a false statement, by the way weren't even material. one obstruction charge and one count of witness tamper

roger stone he is a free man after u.s. president donald trump commuted the sentence of his former aide he had faced prison for lying to congress. and lifesaving aid to syria a un roadblock russia and china vetoed security council efforts to continue sending food and supplies to civilians in rebel held territory. i'm michael it's good to have you with us 25 years ago today serb forces captured the bosnian town of. and carried out europe's worst massacre since the 2nd world war a ceremony is underway to remember the thousands of muslims killed in the atrocity the anniversary is being marked in the shadow of the global coronavirus pandemic which has not only meant that commemorations have been scaled back but has also again delayed appeals hearings in the trial of the main culprit serb general ratko lat it sure was eventually convicted of war. and genocide but the families of the deceased are far from closure. just 3 bones in a piece of cloth yet it's enough to shed light on a sad fate one of 8000 victims of the strep an isa

still ahead still trunk commutes the prison sentence for his former advisor vaughan just stone who was convicted of lying to congress join the russian collusion probe a story on small off the brain. you can't be both with the yeah you like. young people great well you know it's good to make it in their own image and the money els and jan see i'm a boomer you know i already had the. 40 or 50 year experience in the united states post world war 2 coast land. stock markets never had a work day in my life because of that and you know so it's up to them to decide what's great make it great and good luck with. welcome back not donald trump is facing a backlash after granting clemency to his former a while just comes hours off the appeals court refused to delay the start of stone's 14 month sentence which he was given for lying to congress during the rush to collusion probe caleb maupin explains. 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 o

he says stone was treated horribly and targeted by a witch hunt. he was to begin a sentence tomorrow on charges including witness tampering. watch this. >> this project stone thing, think about it , we know this was politically driven. all you have to do is look at the s.w.a.t. team coming into get a guy that is being arrested for process crimes. >> it is important to people also to know that it is a threat to our national security. the whole impeachment process was about our national security. >> harris: kristin fisher's live outside the white house. kristin? >> hey, harris. a federal judge has ordered the white house to explain the scope of roger stone's clemency. this judge wants to know if it only applies to prison time or if it also extends to that 2-year probation. mack. he will save the white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany clarifies that when she steps up to the podium any minute now. the judge set the deadline for tomorrow. remember, harris, this is the same day that roger stone was supposed to report to prison. president trump has

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

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 justice those lost and recover their remains and bring them home many relatives of the victims haven't found closure forensic exp

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

. >> roger stone, longtime trump associate and adviser was taken into custody by the fbi. >> stone haden arrested in connection with special counsel robert mueller's probe into whether anyone associated with the trump campaign conspired with the russians, who attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. the special counsel alleged that stone was a conduit between the trump campaign and wikileaks, which released russian-hacked emails from the democratic national committee involving hillary clinton. in june of this year, through the freedom of information act, cnn obtained a less redacted version of the report, noting that former trump campaign chair paul manafort, former deputy chair rick gates, and former trump attorney michael cohen, all told investigators that in july 2016 roger stone told donald trump and others that wikileaks founder julian assange told him that the website would soon begin publishing damaging documents. >> prosecutors accuse roger stone of lying to protect the president. >> roger stone and donald trump have been friends or sometimes fremimies for 40 y

there is evidence that roger stone broke the law. but what the president is doing here is really underlining the fact that he's willing to use his presidential powers to help his friends, to help people who are close to him. in this case roger stone is someone who is very close to the president. he's someone who has all sorts of lessons for the president that you see and -- enacted and played out every day from the president including the fact that all press, whether it's bad or good is still good press because it keeps your -- your name up there and people talking about you. so i think this is a really -- i think an interesting commutation on the president's part but not surprising because the president had been hinting at this all week. robert: eamon, i know you were checking in with your sources and breaking news. are you detecting any divide insidehe west wing about this decision by the president trump during the middle of election season? campaign season? >> not yet. the news is just -- has just been out a couple of minutes and

keep stone out of prison.omeone who took care of him in this investigation. mitt romney i thought said it best today in a tweet. he said, unprecedented, historic corruption day in america. that's it in a nutshell, wolf. >> that's really significant statement from mitt romney. jeffrey, i read your article in "the new yorker" that was just posted. you make a strong case that what the president of the united states has now done, richard iksen would have never done when he was president of the united states. thanks to a lot of problems, the roger stone case shows why trump is worse than nixon. that's the headline in your article. what's interesting is robert mueller as far as roger stone is concerned and bill barr, the attorney general, they seem to be on the same page right now as opposed to the president. >> what's so remarkable about the history here is there's this conversation on the white house tapes from march 21st, 1973 where richard nixon and his white house counsel are talking about the demands of e. how

here is what the president had to say about stone before that visit to walter reed. >> 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 papadopolous was treated unfairly. 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. >> meanwhile, in that "the washington post" op-ed released just tonight by robert mueller the former special counsel writes in part, quote, the work of the special counsel's office -- its reports, indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions -- should speak for itself. but i feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper and to specific claims that roger stone was a victim of our office. the russia investigation was of paramount importance. stone was prose

later today a federal appeals court denied stone'

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

we've known the small blue stones here came from wales, but what about the other 52 massive sarcen stones, now, finally, we have the answer. it's 15 miles away from stonehenge, at a place called west woods in wiltshire. sarcen stones can still be seen scattered around. experts say it's here the builders of stonehenge came. it's really exciting to know that west woods is the source of the sarcens for stonehenge, because first of all it gives us that focus, it gives us that answer, but secondly it also means we can do some more work. we know where to come now. this story starts in 1958, and an engineer called robert phillips, on the left, here. he was given a stone rod from a sarcen during repairs, which he then took to florida, where he started a new life. two years ago, aged 89, he decided to give the rod back to stonehenge. that allowed chemical tests to be carried out and pinpoint where the stones came from. i think he would have been delighted to know that, through his husbandry of this important artefact, that it's been able to be used to make this great discovery and pinpoint the loc

president donald trump has commuted the sentence of his long time ally roger stone stone advise trump'spresidential campaign was sentenced to jail for lying to congress and the russian approach. to u.n. security council votes to extend humanitarian aid to syria failed to pass aid agencies say the decision could lead to dark consequences for millions of people. and the largest broadcaster in the philippines is just hours away from shutting down for good that's after m.p.'s refused to renew a b.s. c.b.s. license the channel has until later on saturday to appeal against the government's decision. now campaigning as kicked off in hong kong for its legislative council elections this weekend the pro-democracy campus holding a primary vote to decide on its candidates for the territories newly imposed national security law has been overshadowed in the lead up to the september vote sarah clarke reports. these images of a mob indiscriminately attacking protesters journalists and civilians in uniform last july marked a turning point in the hong kong demonstrations journalist with hope was live str

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 gate the total collapse of the mother of korea even that 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 to 2 months after the resurgence of the black lives that matter movement sparked by the killing of george floyd in the united states the impact is still being left around the world in the german

stone among them.f the trump campaign conspired with the russian government in its activities the investigation did, however, find it would benefit from a trump presidency and work to secure that outcome and the campaign suspected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through russian efforts. how much does this truly strike at the heart of the hoax message that president's been trying so very hard to sell. >> reporter: in reality, it undercuts it for those who read the mum ormueller report when i out this wasn't surprising. mueller said at the time the president wanted, got, accepted russian help, and the russians were trying to help him. the key to the roger stone situation here is that as mueller writes in the op-ed, they determined that stone was talking to russian intelligence officers and knew when russia was going to make moves on behalf of the trump campaign, but roger stone as waltz convicted of lying about his role to congress. so this is a situation where, you know

and i got say i love that shot of roger stone wearing a roger stone face mask and a roger stone t-shirtat 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 been

watch this. >> roger stone was treated horribly. roger stone was treated very unfairly.oger 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 investigation

donald trump wants to keep roger stone silent. roger stone knows too much about donald trump. that's always the motivation with this president, which is to protect himself, to cover up for himself, nothing else matters. certainly not the interest of justice. in terms of what could be done about it, i think we're going to need legislation when this president is gone to curb the abuse of pardon and commutation. one way we could do it, i introduced a bill along these lines, is to require that where the president commutes or pardons someone in a case in which the president himself is a witness subject to target, the complete investigative files need to be provided to congress that will at least be a deterrent for corrupt acts like this one. >> i want to follow up with you on something that we heard in kelly's package. you heard the attorney general say that stepheone's conviction righteous and yet we are seeing the attorney general essentially been moving to announce replacements for u.s. attorneys who are investigating president trump, the trump administration. we saw another one

president trump has commuted the sentence of his ally, roger stone.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 have gathered to pay their respects at the funeral of dame vera lynn, who died la

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,

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

stone said he quit., even then, you had the sense, in talking to him, that he was still, you know, in touch with the president and still kind of working informally. >> doubt. i've interviewed him. i've known roger a long time and i remember interviewing him during the course of the firing period. you know, the cooling off. and he always seemed to have insight that could only have come from having the president's ear. >> you've got a special airing tomorrow night on cnn at 10:00 chronicling your long career in poll f politics and broadcasting. i want to play a clip. >> i met ronald reagan as a newly minted 18-year-old. i worked in the george herbert walker bush administration when i was 29. i once had a seven-hour dinner with fidel castro at his house. i got to take former pakistani president to vote with me, at my suburban philadelphia polling place. you can watch it on youtube. it didn't go so well. >> the variety of stuff is -- is amazing. i'm shocked led zeppelin doesn't take orders from you. and a se

(fireworks exploding) >>> 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. roger stone was not treated properly. so i'm very happy with what i did. >> well, at least he's predictable. roger stone was treated unfairly? not so, says his prosecutor, robert mueller, not by a long shot. the former special counsel of the russia investigation wrote an extremely rare op-ed published in "the washington post" yesterday. he writes, quote, stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. he remains a convicted felon and rightly so. mueller continues, we made every decision in stone's case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law in accordance with the rule of law. the women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. claims to the contrary are false, end quote. another oddity this weekend. some republican lawmakers actually spoke out against trump's clemency for stone

we have to get to the roger stone story. last friday, late on friday, president trump commuted the sentence of long-time ally, roger stone, who was due to report to prison on july 14th. the commutation came hours after an appeals court denied stone's emergency motion to delay his surrender date to the coronavirus, the president called stone on friday to personally deliver the news as the white house issued a lengthy statement attacking the investigation that produced the charges. it reads in part, quote, mr. stone was charged by the same prosecutors from the mueller investigation tasked with finding evidence of collusion with russia. the simple fact is that if the special counsel had not been pursuing an absolutely baseless investigation, mr. stone would not be facing time in prison. stone was convicted of lying to congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of the mueller investigation. in a trial that attorney general william barr described as righteous. nbc news learned that william barr was one of the advisers against t

after the president commuted stone's prison sentence on friday.eekend this weekend, quote, stone became the central figure in our investigation for two key reasons, he communicated in 2016 with individuals known to us to be russian intelligence officers and he claimed advanced knowledge of wikileaks release emails stolen by those officers. joining us now is sam vinograd. sam, last year, stone was convicted of seven charges, including lying to congress and what prosecutors say was in part to protect the president. you tweeted that the president's decision to commute stone deals a major blow to our election security. how so? >> our justice system is designed to punish crimes and in doing so, to deter future ones. trump's actions directly undercut that. the commutation is like an all hands announcement to the campaign that working with foreign governments is okay. as you just read, mueller detailed the fact that roger stone engaged in a host of dangerous activities during the campaign. trump's willingness to slow this all under the rug really signals

mueller called stone a rightly convicted felon. he also said the russia investigation was of paramount importance and stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. mueller added that stone became a central figure in the investigation into election tampering for several reasons, including communication with russian intelligence and advance knowledge of leaks before release of russian stolen emails. >>> a fire ripped through an historic california mission and tonight firefighters are trying to pinpoint exactly how that started. the flames erupted inside the nearly 250-year-old san gabriel mission in san diego this morning. the church contains artifacts dating back to the late 1700s. the cause is under investigation. the mission was undergoing renovations and had been closed for the past several months because of the coronavirus. >> it is so tragic at so many different levels. this church has become such a healing ground during this pandemic. then for this to happen. >> much of the mission was destroyed. howe