Trump commutes jail sentence of long-time friend and ally Roger Stone

U.S. President Donald Trump late on Friday announced that he is commuting a jail sentence imposed on Roger Stone, just days before the longtime political operative was due to report to federal prison.

"Roger Stone has already suffered greatly," the White House said in a statement.  "He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case.  Roger Stone is now a free man!"

Trump's announcement came just minutes after an appeals court in Washington, DC denied Stone's request for a prison sentence delay.  Stone told The Associated Press news agency that Trump had called him earlier on Friday to inform him of the commutation.  Stone 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."  She said: "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."

A commutation does not erase Stone’s felony convictions in the same way a pardon would, but it would protect him from serving prison time as a result.

Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison in February after being convicted of charges that included lying to a congressional panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.