WASHINGTON: Presi­dent Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of his longtime political confidant Roger Stone, intervening in extraordinary fashion in a criminal case that was central to the Russia investigation and that concerned the president’s own conduct.

The move came on Saturday, just days before Stone was to begin serving a 40-month prison sentence for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

The action, which Trump had foreshadowed in recent days, underscores the president's lingering rage over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and is part of a continuing effort by the president and his administration to rewrite the narrative of a probe that has shadowed the White House from the outset. Democrats, already alarmed by the Justice Department’s earlier dismissal of the case against Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, denounced the president as further undermining the rule of law.

Stone, 67, had been set to report to prison on Tuesday after a federal appeals court rejected his bid to postpone his surrender date. But he said that Trump called him Friday evening to tell him he was off the hook.

The president told me that he had decided, in an act of clemency, to issue a full commutation of my sentence, and he urged me to vigorously pursue my appeal and my vindication, Stone said by phone from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was celebrating with friends. He said he had to change rooms because there were too many people opening bottles of Champagne here.

Although a commutation does not nullify Stones felony convictions, it protects him from serving prison time as a result.

The move marks another extraordinary intervention by Trump in the nation’s justice system and underscores anew his willingness to flout the norms and standards that have governed presidential conduct for decades. As Trump stares down a coronavirus pandemic that has worsened his chances for reelection, he has been more willing than ever to test the limits of his power.

Democrats denounced Trump’s action. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff called it offensive to the rule of law and principles of justice. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez asked, Is there any power Trump wont abuse? White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, in a statement, called Stone a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media,” and declared, Roger Stone is now a free man!” Stone had been open about his desire for a pardon or commutation, appealing for the presidents help with a monthslong television and social media campaign and seeking to postpone his surrender date by months after getting a brief extension from the judge, in part by citing the coronavirus.

Trump, who had made clear in recent days that he was inching closer to acting, had repeatedly publicly inserted himself into Stones case, including just before Stones sentencing.

That earned a public rebuke from his own attorney general, William Barr, who said the presidents comments were making it impossible for him to do his job. Barr was so incensed that he told people he was considering resigning over the matter.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2020