Title kind of says it all: President Trump chose to commute the sentence of Roger Stone rather than pardon him.
The commutation was thorough, Stone will suffer no penalty for his conviction (I do not think, correct me if I am wrong). So, this is basically a pardon that is not a pardon.
I guess it stays on Stone’s permanent record but I doubt he cares much about that.
So why choose to commute rather than pardon Stone?