Trump Commutes Sentence of Roger Stone

Roger Stone won't be going to jail after all. On Friday evening, President Trump commuted the sentence of his longtime confidant, a move that came just days before the 67-year-old was to report to prison in Georgia. Stone was sentenced in February to three years and four months in prison for lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. He was set to report to prison by Tuesday, per the AP.

"Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Grant of Clemency commuting the unjust sentence of Roger Stone, Jr," said a White House statement, according to Politico. The statement said Stone was "a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years." The move, short of a full pardon, is sure to anger critics who have railed against the president’s interventions in the nation’s justice system. (More Roger Stone stories.)