Letters to the Editor: Roger Stone’s commutation is more of the same from the Republican Party

To the editor: Columnist Jonah Goldberg omits President George H.W. Bush’s pardons, not merely commutations, of six defendants relating to the Iran-Contra scandal, four of whom were already convicted or had pleaded guilty. (“It’s Roger Stone’s Republican Party now,” Opinion, July 13).

Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor, said: “It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office — deliberately abusing the public trust without consequence.”

Those pardons effectively closed any further investigation, which likely included Bush’s own role in the scandal. And, just like President Trump, William Barr was Bush’s attorney general at the time.

So no, this isn’t Roger Stone’s party. This is, and has been, the Republican Party.

Alice P. Neuhauser, Manhattan Beach

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To the editor: I am not a conspiracy theorist. I know we did land on the moon, and that Hillary Clinton was not running a child sex ring in a Washington pizza parlor.

However, I question why Trump is toadying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and giving Stone a “get out of jail free” card. Since we know that our president has no discernible foreign policy and is clearly devoid of compassion, what can explain his actions?

Barbara H. Bergen, Los Angeles