President Trump will likely pardon long-time confidant Roger Stone near the end of the day Friday. While this is speculation, all indicators point to this being the case. The President has been expressing his dissatisfaction with the verdict for weeks, and today begins the final weekend before Stone is scheduled to report to prison next week.
Based on hints from the White House, they will be announcing the pardon ahead of the weekend. Friday’s are generally considered the best day to release controversial bombshells to allow the news to fade over the weekend before starting a new news cycle on Monday.
This will generally be perceived positively by Trump supporters who have been calling for Stone’s pardon since before he was convicted in November 2019 of making false statements, obstructing an official proceeding and witness tampering in a case related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The infamous CNN/FBI early morning raid on Stone’s house drew outrage from conservatives as an obvious PR stunt by the left.