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Trump commutes prison sentence of long-time ally Roger Stone
- Stone had been sentenced for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing an investigation into Trump’s alleged Russian collusion
- A commutation does not erase his felony convictions in the same way a pardon would, but would protect him from serving prison time
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US President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of his long-time political confidant Roger Stone on Friday, just days before he was set to report to prison. Democrats denounced the move as just another in a series of unprecedented interventions by the president in the nation’s justice system.
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Stone had been sentenced in February to three years and four months in prison for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House of Representatives’ investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. He was set to report to prison by Tuesday.
Stone said that Trump had called him earlier Friday to tell him of the commutation. He was celebrating in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with conservative friends and said he had to change rooms because there were “too many people opening bottles of champagne here”.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called Stone a “victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years.”
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“Not only was Mr. Stone charged by overzealous prosecutors pursing a case that never should have existed, and arrested in an operation that never should have been approved, but there were also serious questions about the jury in the case,” she said in a statement.
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