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As my RedState colleague Streiff reported Friday, the mainstream media erupted in predictable outrage over President Trump’s commuting of what the White House called the “unjust” prison sentence of former adviser Roger Stone.

Trump signed the Executive Grant of Clemency on Stone just a few days before he was to begin serving his 40 months sentence after being convicted in November of lying to Congress during the sham Russia collusion investigation. Stone was sentenced in February.

After all the pearl-clutching from the media and the Usual Suspects on the Schiff left and the Romney right, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley decided to inject some sanity into the discussion by noting that Trump’s Stone commutation “was not even a distant contender for ‘the most corrupt and cronyistic act’ of presidential clemency”, as was alleged by Trump’s critics:

Despite my disagreement with the commutation, such a statement is almost charmingly quaint. The sordid history of White House pardons makes this commutation look positively chaste in comparison. https://t.co/vtoQMN8BVf

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 11, 2020

…Trump should have left the decision to a successor (as Reagan did) or, at a minimum, to Barr. Nevertheless, compared to other presidents, his commutation of Stone is not even a distant contender for “the most corrupt and cronyistic act” of presidential clemency.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 11, 2020

Mitt Romney seemed to echo Toobin's view in declaring this an "unprecedented, historic corruption." Again, I believe that decision was wrong on the merits and on the process. However, Romney and Toobin are wrong on the rather sordid history of presidential clemency decisions.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 11, 2020

Romney stated that it is "unprecedented" that "an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president." However, Romney has long heralded his respect and support of President George H.W. Bush …https://t.co/vtoQMN8BVf

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 11, 2020

…despite Bush's executive clemency actions for six former senior government officials implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal, including former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Bush himself was implicated in that scandal and some alleged was protected by their silence.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 11, 2020

Nancy Pelosi also just joined the growing club of historical revisionists in declaring that this was "an act of staggering corruption" to pardon someone who "could directly implicate him in criminal misconduct." I do not recall Pelosi's staggering moment when Bill Clinton…

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 11, 2020

…pardoned Susan McDougal who might have implicated him in Whitewater. Nor was Clinton's pardoning of his own half brother or a fugitive Democratic donor staggering in any way. There was no statement of indignation, let alone a call from Pelosi for an investigation.

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 11, 2020

In other words, you don’t have to be a fan of Stone’s nor necessarily agree with Trump’s decision to be able to see that the media/Democrat/Romney “outrage” over Stone’s commutation is nothing more than hypocritical garbage virtue-signaling chock full of historical (hysterical?) ignorance.

Read Turley’s full Twitter thread unrolled here and the piece he wrote for The Hill explaining his position in greater detail here.