TRUMP STEPS IN

President commutes sentence for longtime confidant Stone.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of his longtime political confidant Roger Stone 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.

Stone had been 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.

Stone told The Associated Press Mr. Trump had called him earlier Friday to inform him of the commutation. Stone was celebrating in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with 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 [by] the Left and its allies in the media.”

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.

Democrats were angered by Mr. Trump’s move, with House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff calling it “offensive to the rule of law and principles of justice,” and Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez asking, “Is there any power Trump won’t abuse?”

The action reflects Mr. Trump’s lingering rage over the Russia investigation and testifies to his conviction he and his associates were mistreated by agents and prosecutors. Stone told the AP the president did not mention the status of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.