Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said there’s a reason Donald Trump granted clemency to longtime adviser Roger Stone: It’s to block the one thing he fears most.

Stone was convicted last year on seven counts related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election, including witness tampering, lying to Congress and obstruction. But last week, Trump commuted Stone’s 40-month sentence. 

“It’s a continuation of the cover-up,” Clinton said on “The Daily Show” on Monday. “Because the one thing that Trump is fearful of when it comes to his being president is that finally, we will see how illegitimate his victory actually was.”

Clinton said that Trump fears that people will see that he was involved in the effort to obtain and use foreign help to win the presidency, and Stone, she said, was critical to that effort.

“Roger Stone was in the middle of it all,” she said. “And that’s why Trump had to cover it up.”