Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who last week voted to acquit President Donald Trump on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges, admitted to reporters on Wednesday that she’d seen no indications that the president had been chastened by his impeachment.
Per New York Times reporter Nicholas Fandos, Murkowski was asked if she’d seen any evidence that Trump had learned anything since being impeached over a scheme to shake down the Ukrainian government to get it to announce investigations into his political rivals.
“There haven’t been very strong indicators this week that he has,” Murkowski admitted.
According to CNN’s Manu Raju, Murkowski also dodged when asked if she thought it was appropriate for Trump to push the Department of Justice to reduce the sentencing recommendation for longtime ally Roger Stone, who was convicted last year on charges of perjury, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice.
“I don’t think the president should be determining what the sentences are,” she said, before adding, “But he’s not.”
In fact, the DOJ moved to revise Stone’s sentencing just hours after the president sent out an angry tweet decrying the initial recommendation of seven-to-nine years in prison. The four prosecutors working on the Stone case all withdrew from the case on the same day.