The White House announced that US President Donald Trump reduced the prison sentence imposed on 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 signed an executive clemency order to reduce the unfair punishment imposed on Roger Stone," the US presidency said in a statement, noting that this old friend of the president is now "a free man."
The Republican president issued his decision days before the date set for his friend to go to prison to begin serving the punishment.
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 obstructing the course of justice, giving false testimonies and tampering with witnesses, in 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 elections 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 site that published a series of pirated documents that embarrassed Clinton.