Rachel Maddow Reveals The Real Reason Trump Intervened In The Roger Stone Case

Rachel Maddow reminded America on Thursday night that Donald Trump didn’t just intervene in the Roger Stone case because he’s a good friend.

No, Trump inserted himself in the case because there is no criminal he isn’t willing to protect so long as they’re committing crimes on his behalf.

“It’s not just the president’s friend here who’s getting this intervention,” the MSNBC host said. “He is trying to reward someone and protect someone who broke the law and committed multiple felonies in order to cover up the president’s behavior.”

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Maddow said:

It has sort of gone without much mention that it’s not just the president’s friend here who’s getting this intervention. This is a case where the president is intervening to help himself, because the person who benefitted from what Roger stone did, the person who Roger stone’s crimes were designed to protect was the president. So when the president is trying to intervene in Stone’s case to make sure he doesn’t get in trouble, he is trying to reward someone and protect someone who broke the law and committed multiple felonies in order to cover up the president’s behavior.

There is no criminal Trump isn’t willing to protect for political purposes

For a few months, Republicans in Congress had to work tirelessly to keep a straight face while pushing the claim that Donald Trump only extorted Ukraine because he’s passionate about fighting corruption.

But it’s always been laughable to suggest that the man who ran a fake university and a slush fund charity somehow cares about the rule of law.

We saw it in his DOJ intervention to help rescue his felon former campaign adviser Roger Stone. We saw it in his latest flurry of pardons.  And we’re likely to see it again as Trump moves closer to pardoning criminals like Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort.

For Donald Trump, this isn’t about protecting a friend. It’s about rewarding a fellow criminal and sending the message to future criminals that he’ll give them the same treatment if they violate the law on his behalf.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.