The White House announced that US President Donald Trump reduced his prison sentence to his friend Roger Stone, who was sentenced last February to 40 months in prison, as part of an investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US presidential election. Trump issued his decision just days before the deadline for entry His friend is imprisoned so that he can begin to carry out the punishment.
In a statement, the US presidency said, "Trump signed an executive clemency order to reduce the unfair punishment imposed on Roger Stone," noting that this old friend of the president is now "a free man."
Trump announced in February, immediately after the conviction of his 67-year-old former aide, that he intended to grant a special pardon. Trump's decision would return to the forefront the accusations leveled against him of meddling in the judicial system in order to help friends and allies and punish opponents and enemies.
Stone was convicted of seven charges, including obstruction of justice, giving false testimony and tampering with witnesses, in the context of a case that focused on his coordination with WikiLeaks in 2016 to publish pirated documents insulting to Hillary Clinton, Trump's rival in the presidential election at the time.
Weston, who was on the Trump campaign team in 2016, was arrested in January 2019 on charges brought against him by the then Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who was investigating Russian interference in the elections.
Stone was especially convicted of lying in a testimony before Congress about the role he played as a mediator between the Trump team and the WikiLeaks website, which published a series of pirated documents that embarrassed Clinton.