Roger Stone, the longtime GOP operative and associate of President Donald Trump whose criminal case became a platform for claims of political bias at the Justice Department and attacks on his jurors, had his sentence commuted Friday amid scrutiny of the department's handling of cases stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

In a statement Friday announcing the grant of clemency, the White House called Stone's sentence "unjust," and said he is "a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump presidency."

The statement lashed out at the Mueller prosecutors as "out of control" and accused them of taking "pains to make a public and shameful spectacle of his arrest."

"Mr. Stone, like every American, deserves a fair trial and every opportunity to vindicate himself before the courts. The president does not wish to interfere with his efforts to do so. At this time, however, and particularly in light of the egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial, the president has determined to commute his sentence," the statement reads. "Roger Stone has already suffered greatly. He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!"

Stone is the first of Trump's associates charged in Mueller's investigation—which the president has bitterly attacked for years—to receive a pardon. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted and served part of his sentence before being allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn also initially pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to investigators, but is now seeking to withdraw that guilty plea in a court fight playing out in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The pardon was handed days before Stone, who was found guilty last year of lying as part of the House Intelligence Committee's Russia probe and intimidating a witness, was set to report to a federal prison to serve his 40-month sentence. Prosecutors repeatedly invoked Stone's ties to the president throughout the trial held in D.C. this past November, arguing the conservative operative lied to Congress to protect Trump and his campaign. Stone's lawyers argued the effect of his actions were minimal at most, with lawyer Bruce Rogow telling the jury, "so what?"

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia, who oversaw the trial, denied Stone's request to push his surrender date to early September and ordered him to report to prison July 14. Stone appealed that ruling and Justice Department lawyers, who told Jackson they did not oppose Stone's request under agency policy, told the D.C. Circuit to uphold the district judge's order. The appeals court on Friday rejected Stone's motion, finding he was "not legally eligible" for such an order under the claims he raised in the appeal.

Trump pardoned Stone as his Department of Justice's treatment of Mueller cases and other investigations tied to the president have reached a fever pitch, after Main Justice overrode career prosecutors' sentencing recommendation for Stone and prosecutors moved to dismiss the criminal information against Flynn.

Both stunning moves were seemingly protested by government lawyers on the cases: All four of the prosecutors on Stone's trial team withdrew from the case, and one, Jonathan Kravis, resigned from the Justice Department entirely. In the Flynn case, prosecutor Brandon Van Grack withdrew shortly before the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. filed the motion to dismiss. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently directed U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the criminal case.

The original team of prosecutors on Stone's case said he should face up to nine years in prison, while a new memorandum said that recommendation went too far and instead urged Jackson to use her own discretion in setting a sentence. Prosecutor John Crabb Jr. apologized to Jackson at Stone's sentencing over the change in the recommendation, saying there was a "miscommunication" but declined to provide further details.

Aaron Zelinsky, one of the former prosecutors on Stone's trial team and a Mueller deputy, recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee that he was told Justice Department officials had political motivations in pushing line prosecutors to recommend a lighter sentence than required by the guidelines and that then-acting U.S. Attorney Tim Shea was "afraid of the president." Shea, who has since left the D.C. office, was also the signature on the motion to dismiss for Flynn.

Concerns over interference in investigations tied to the president have recently shifted to the Southern District of New York, where former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman was recently forced out. Berman said in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee this week that Attorney General William Barr repeatedly pushed him to resign, but he refused to do so until the Senate confirmed his replacement.

Berman told the committee he considered going to court to block his firing, but decided not to do so after Barr tapped Berman's deputy, Audrey Strauss, to temporarily lead the office instead of the attorney general's original pick, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito of the District New Jersey. "With that concession, and having full confidence that Audrey would continue the important work of the office, I decided to step down and not litigate my removal," Berman said.

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An Uphill Legal Battle

Stone's legal team faced repeated defeats both ahead of and during his trial. Jackson regularly ruled against their pretrial motions, like those to invoke a Democratic National Committee server Mueller alleged was hacked by Russian intelligence members. But she did grant them some notable victories, like access to parts of the Mueller report about Stone's case that were otherwise shielded from public view.

Stone also found himself in hot water over Instagram posts he made during the course of the proceedings. Last year he shared an image of Jackson with a crosshairs in the corner, sparking a hearing where Stone delivered a rare apology to the judge. She ordered him to not publicly discuss his case, and later blocked him from posting on Instagram entirely after he shared posts about filings in the case.

More recently, the case was consumed by claims brought forward by Stone's defense team that the foreperson of the jury was biased against Stone, citing social media posts she made, and Stone should receive a new trial as a result. Those allegations reverberated across conservative media, and even Trump spoke and tweeted them out.

Jackson ruled against the motion for a new trial in a thorough, 81-page opinion in April, finding that Stone's motion was a "tower of indignation, but at the end of the day, there is little of substance holding it up."

Right-wing figure Mike Cernovich has since petitioned the court to obtain the juror questionnaires. Jackson appointed Sidley Austin's Alan Raul as the juror's pro bono counsel, and the jurors in April filed individual declarations about their fears of future harassment if further details about them are made public.

Stone ahead of his appeal expressed frustrations with his legal team's representation of him during the trial. He brought on board attorney Seth Ginsberg as he pursued the claims of juror bias, and tapped attorneys Paul Kamenar and David Schoen as the case went up on appeal. Kamenar previously represented former Stone aide Andrew Miller in an attempt to resist a subpoena for testimony before Mueller's grand jury.

Ginsberg recently said Stone's trial attorneys, Bruce Rogow and Robert Buschel, have taken a backseat in the appeal of the case. Ginsberg denied that change was related to Stone's frustrations, and was more about bringing in a new team to handle the appeal. Longtime Stone lawyer Grant Smith is also involved in the appeal.

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