President Donald Trump called his political ally Roger Stone on Friday to inform him that he would commute his prison sentence for crimes related to the Russian investigation, as confirmed by NBC News, the sister network of Telemundo.
Moments later The White House confirmed the commutation of the sentence in a statement, saying Stone was the victim of “deception” in the investigation into the Russian plot.
The commutation comes just days before Stone began serving a 40-month prison sentence for lying to Congress, witnessing the manipulation and obstruction of the House of Representatives investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win. the 2016 elections.
The Republican strategist was due to appear in prison next Tuesday.
The move is not a complete pardon, but it is expected to alarm critics who have long protested against the President’s repeated interventions in the nation’s justice system.
According to the agency The Associated PressStone said Trump had called him earlier this Friday to inform him of the commutation. Stone was celebrating in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and said she had to change rooms because there was “Too Many People Opening Champagne Bottles Here”.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called Stone “a victim of Russia’s deception by the left and its allies in the media.”
“Mr. Stone was not only charged by overzealous prosecutors with a case that should never have existed, and arrested in an operation that should never have been approved, but there were also serious questions about the jury in the case,” he said in a statement. .
A commutation doesn’t erase Stone’s felony convictions in the same way that a pardon would, but it would protect him from serving a prison term.
Stone had been open about his desire for forgiveness or commutation, asking for the president’s help in a series of Instagram posts in which he assured that his life could be in danger if he was imprisoned during a pandemic.
He was the sixth Trump aide to be convicted of charges brought as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the election.
A longtime friend of the president and informal adviser, he boasted during the campaign that he contacted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange through an intermediary and hinted that he knew of WikiLeaks’ plan to post more than 19,000 emails. hacked from the servers of the Democratic National Committee.
Prosecutors originally recommended that Stone serve seven to nine years in federal prison. But, in a very unusual move, Attorney General William Barr reversed that decision after a Trump tweet and recommended a more lenient sentence, prompting a mini-revolt within the Justice Department, and that the entire team of the The prosecution will resign the case.
Other powerful men benefited by Trump’s clemency
This act of presidential clemency is the latest example of how Trump has used this unlimited power of the presidents to forgive powerful men who he believes have been mistreated by the justice system.
