‘Victim of Russia Hoax’: Trump Commutes Prison Term of ‘Longtime Friend’ Robert Stone

The 67-year-old was scheduled to report for his prison term on Tuesday. He was convicted of lying under oath to lawmakers investigating the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Karan Manral

Published: July 11, 2020, 8:48 AM IST

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https://www.india.com/news/world/victim-of-russia-hoax-trump-commutes-prison-term-of-longtime-friend-robert-stone-4081366/ Copy

Roger Stone (File Photo)

New Delhi: In a major development nearly four months before the US Presidential election, President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone, Junior. The move spared Stone from prison after he was convicted of lying under oath to lawmakers investigating the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Notably, Stone was scheduled to report on Tuesday for his prison term of three years and four months. After the commutation, however, he is now a free man. The commutation, however, does not erase his felony convictions in the same way as a presidential pardon would have.

In a statement, the White House said, “President Donald J. Trump today signed an Executive Grant of Clemency commuting the unjust sentence of Roger Stone, Jr. Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency”.

“There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or Trump Administration, with Russia. Such collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to accept the result of the 2016 election”, the statement noted further.

There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or Trump Administration, with Russia. Such collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to accept the result of the 2016 election: White House https://t.co/aWbZKKBxCZ

— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2020

The 67-year-old Stone was among several associates of Trump who were charged with crimes in a special investigation by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller. He was himself open about his desire for a pardon or commutation, going to the extent of appealing to Trump and seeking to postpone his surrender date by months after getting a brief extension from the judge.

Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence, however, brought him severe flak from the Democrats, who accused him of undermining the rule of law, remarking that there were two sets of justice: one for his criminal friends and one for everyone else.