President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of longtime adviser Roger Stone, who was found guilty of seeking to thwart congressional and FBI investigations into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Stone, 67, was sentenced in February to three years and four months in prison after a trial late last year where a jury found him guilty on all seven felony charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

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The White House said in a statement: "Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Grant of Clemency commuting the unjust sentence of Roger Stone, Jr," calling Stone "a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years."

Trump acted just after a federal appeals court panel denied a last-ditch bid by Stone to delay an order for him to surrender at a federal prison in Jesup, Ga. next Tuesday. Stone claimed he suffered from health conditions that put him at serious risk of dying if he went to that prison, which is experiencing a coronavirus outbreak.

Trump's move to protect a close ally from a conviction stemming from a probe that also included an investigation of Trump’s own conduct quickly set off explosive recriminations in the Democratically controlled House, where leaders have long said clemency for Trump’s inner circle would amount to obstruction of justice. It also comes despite Attorney General Bill Barr’s declaration that Stone’s prosecution was “righteous” and that his sentence was fair.

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“Stone repeatedly lied to the House Intelligence Committee under oath and threatened a witness, all to cover up an effort by President Trump and his campaign to secretly communicate with Wikileaks and exploit its release of Russian-hacked emails targeting his opponent,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said in a statement. “With this commutation, Trump makes clear that there are two systems of justice in America: one for his criminal friends, and one for everyone else.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney said they intended to immediately seek a briefing from the White House counsel about the circumstances of Stone's commutation.

Trump’s involvement in the case prior to Friday — criticizing the initial sentence proposed by prosecutors, attacking the judge and jury in the case — had already prompted howls of outrage from Democrats, accusations of self-dealing and warnings from Justice Department veterans about an effort to shatter the justice system’s independence to benefit the president.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/10/trump-commutes-sentence-roger-stone-356760

Trump commuted his sentence to buy his silence. Roger Stone must have threatened to spill on the Russian Interference.

Another Nondisclosure agreement on the table.