President Trump has commuted the sentence of his longtime adviser Roger Stone, calling him a victim of the “Russian hoax” and saying he would have been put at serious medical risk in prison.
Trump on Friday signed an executive grant of clemency just days before Stone was due to report to prison Tuesday to serve a 40-month sentence after he was found guilty on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress.
Stone had appealed the ruling and maintains his innocence.
“Roger Stone has already suffered greatly,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement announcing the reprieve Friday night.
Though issued in the name of his top press aide, the statement — filled with the president’s characteristic attacks on the Mueller investigation and superlatives for Stone — was pure Trump.
“Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” the statement said.
“He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!”
Trump had hinted earlier Friday that he was considering a presidential pardon for Stone.
“I think Roger Stone was very unfairly treated, as were many people, and in the meantime, Comey and all these guys are walking around, including Biden and Obama, because we caught them spying on my campaign,” Trump said.
“Who would have believed that one?”
Stone and his wife, Nydia, “appreciate all the consideration the President gave to this matter,” his attorney Grant Smith said in a statement, the Washington Post reported.
“Mr. Stone is incredibly honored that President Trump used his awesome and unique power under the Constitution of the United States for this act of mercy,” Smith said.
Stone’s pardon immediately drew strong condemnation from his rival Joe Biden and fellow Democrats who argued the decision smacked of cronyism and corruption.
“President Trump has once again abused his power, releasing this commutation on a Friday night, hoping to yet again avoid scrutiny as he lays waste to the norms and the values that make our country a shining beacon to the rest of the world,” said Biden’s campaign spokesman, Bill Russo, in a statement.
New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, pledged to investigate the pardon.
“A jury found Roger Stone guilty,” Nadler tweeted.
“By commuting his sentence, President Trump has infected our judicial system with partisanship and cronyism and attacked the rule of law. @HouseJudiciary will conduct an aggressive investigation into this brazen corruption.”
Stone’s buddies hailed his new freedom Friday night.
Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign advisor who serves as an assistant secretary at Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted a photo of a celebratory, white-tableclothed lobster dinner he ordered in Stone’s honor.
“Hey #RogerStone. We still can’t talk but I know you’re reading this,” he wrote with the photo. “This lobster is for you old friend: congratulations!”