July 13, 2020

The Honorable William P. Barr Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Barr:

President Trump’s commutation of ’s prison sentence for obstructing a bipartisan congressional investigation raises serious questions about whether this extraordinary intervention was provided in exchange for Mr. Stone’s silence about incriminating acts by the President. During your confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019, I asked whether you “believe a President could lawfully issue a pardon in exchange for the recipient’s promise not to incriminate him.”1 Without hesitation or caveat – and under oath – you responded: “No, that would be a crime.”2 Given recently surfaced information indicating that President Trump may have commuted Mr. Stone’s sentence in exchange for his refusal to incriminate the President, pursuant to your own standard, an inquiry by the Justice Department into Mr. Stone’s commutation is clearly warranted.

Thanks to recent Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, newly unredacted portions of Mueller’s report reveal that multiple witnesses confirmed then-candidate Trump’s direct knowledge and encouragement of Roger Stone’s efforts to release damaging information about stolen by Russian hackers.3 These witnesses’ observations flatly contradict President Trump’s repeated denials of having such knowledge of Mr. Stone’s activities in his written responses to Special Counsel Mueller’s questions.4 After submitting these suspect answers to the Special Counsel, President Trump took to and praised Mr. Stone for being “brave” and having “guts” for refusing to cooperate with investigators and provide incriminating testimony against him.5 Special Counsel Mueller observed that the President’s tweets about

1 Meg Wagner, Veronica Rocha, & Amanda Wills, Trump’s Attorney General Pick Faces Senate Hearing, CNN (last updated Jan. 16, 2019), https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/william-barr-confirmation- hearing/h_b044168bb65f906231dad9bd15a33901. 2 Id. 3 Quinta Jurecic & Benjamin Wittes, The Roger Stone Commutation Is Even More Corrupt Than It Seems, Blog (July 11, 2020), https://www.lawfareblog.com/roger-stone-commutation-even-more-corrupt-it-seems. 4 Id. 5 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Dec. 3, 2018, 10:48 AM), https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1069619316319035392?lang=en; see also Spencer Hsu, Rachel Weiner, & Toluse Olorunnipa, Trump Commutes Sentence of Confidant Roger Stone Who Was Convicted of Lying to Congress and Witness Tampering, (July 11, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-hes-looking-at-pardoning-roger-stone-ahead-of-prison- term/2020/07/10/d1a1e5ea-c2b7-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html.

Stone “support the inference that the President intended to communicate a message that witnesses could be rewarded for refusing to provide testimony adverse to the President.”6

It appears that Roger Stone received that message, given his decision to obstruct a congressional investigation, make false statements to Congress, and even intimidate a witness rather than provide any incriminating information about the President.7 As Judge Amy Berman Jackson stated in unequivocal language during Roger Stone’s sentencing hearing: “He was prosecuted for covering up for the President.”8 This past Friday, Roger Stone seemed to acknowledge as much during an interview, stating that the President “knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t.”9 Hours later that same day, the White House announced that President Trump is commuting Roger Stone’s 40 month prison sentence.10

On its face, this has all the appearances of President Trump granting clemency to Mr. Stone in exchange for his refusal to incriminate the President in any way – which, pursuant to your own sworn testimony, “would be a crime.” As there appears to be a reasonable, factual indication that criminal activity has occurred, your duty to pursue equal justice under the law requires you to conduct a thorough review of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Stone’s commutation and uncover any evidence suggesting that President Trump issued this commutation in return for Mr. Stone‘s refusal to cooperate with investigators in order to protect the President.

Sincerely,

______U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy

6 Quinta Jurecic, What’s New in the Unredacted ?, Lawfare Blog (July 2, 2020), https://www.lawfareblog.com/whats-new-unredacted-mueller-report. 7 III, Roger Stone Remains a Convicted Felon, And Rightly So, The Washington Post (July 11, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/11/mueller-stone-oped/?arc404=true. 8 Dan Berman & Katelyn Polantz, ‘The American people cared. And I care.’ Top Lines From Judge Amy Berman Jackson During The Roger Stone Sentencing, CNN (last updated Feb. 21, 2020), https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/20/politics/amy-berman-jackson-quotes/index.html. 9 Howard Fineman, Roger Stone Is Saved, The Washington Post (July 10, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/10/roger-stone-is-saved/. 10 Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grant of Clemency for Roger Stone, Jr, White House (issued July 10, 2020), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding- executive-grant-clemency-roger-stone-jr/.