Senior Democrats condemned US President Donald Trump's decision to reduce the prison terms of his former adviser and friend, Roger Stone.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden Trump's spokesperson accused Trump of abuse of power and "tampering" with US values.
The move to reduce the sentence, not pardon, came after a court rejected a request by Stone to postpone the start date of the 40-month prison sentence.
Stone had been convicted of lying to Congress, obstructing the influence of witnesses and influencing them.
Stone is the sixth Trump aide to be convicted on charges related to a Justice Ministry investigation into allegations of Russian attempts to support the 2016 Trump campaign.
Roger Stone, 67, was to be held in a federal prison in Georgia state next Tuesday.
The White House said, "Sixty victims of an attempt by opponents to undermine the presidency."
On the other hand, the president faces political criticism by working to undermine the justice system by interfering in criminal cases involving former advisers, including Stone.
Trump publicly deplores the trials of his campaign leader Paul Manafort, as well as his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
What did the reaction look like?
"Trump is not ashamed, but should be stopped by the ballot box," said Bill Rousseau, campaign spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Russo added: "Once again, President Trump is abusing his powers by issuing a decision to reduce, as well as tampering with the standards and values that make our country a beacon for the rest of the world."
Trump's adviser gets a 40-month sentence and the judge expresses "disgust" about him
Adam Schiff, head of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, condemned Trump's move to reduce the penalty for Stone.
"With this step, Trump clearly declares that there are two systems of justice in America: one for his friends from criminals, and the other for anyone else," Schiff said.
"This move revealed that Trump is the most corrupt president in history," said Democratic Party Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, defended the decision, saying that "the judgment of Roger Stone was overly cruel."
As for Stone himself, he told reporters that "under the mitigation decision, he was able to appeal against the verdict against him. Stone appeared confident of his ability to expose" a tremendous amount of corruption "in his trial.
What did the president say?
A statement issued by the White House stated that "Roger Stone is a victim of the deception of the left and its allies that it has raised in the media for years in an effort to undermine Trump's presidency."
"Prosecutors at the Justice Department under the leadership of Special Investigator Robert Mueller have charged Stone with their despair, after they despaired of proving that they were cooperating with the Trump campaign," the statement added.
The White House also pointed out that the FBI informed the CNN news of his raid that took place before dawn on Stone's house, noting that the network's photographers were at the site of the raid to film the arrest.
"Roger Stone is suffering greatly," the statement said. "He has been deeply wronged, along with many others in this case. Roger Stone is now free and loose!"
Trump has been hinting for months that he intends to intervene for Stone, the last time he alluded to this Thursday evening in an interview with Fox News.
Roger Stone, Trump's "prankster" adviser on the dock
What do I owe Stone?
The president's decision to reduce the sentence does not erase criminal conviction as does the amnesty.
Stone had been convicted of lying to the House Intelligence Committee over his attempts to contact WikiLeaks, which had published offensive email messages about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic contender for Trump in the 2016 election.
US intelligence officials concluded that the messages were stolen by Russian pirates.
Stone admitted during the 2016 campaign that he was in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Stone also hinted that he knows that WikiLeaks is able to post more than 19,000 pirated email messages from NDC servers.
And the length of the sentence that was imposed on the sixty was less than the penalty demanded by the public prosecutor, which is imprisonment between seven and nine years.
But Justice Secretary William Barr, in a controversial move after Trump's tweet, recommended that the punishment be more tolerant.
This intervention by Bar led all members of the prosecution team in the Stone case to leave the case.
Who is Roger Stone?
Stone has been working with Republicans since the 1970s, and has knocked a tattoo on his back for Richard Nixon.
In the 1990s, Stone worked as a lobbyist for Trump's business, and later helped Trump in a failed attempt to reach the White House in the 2000 presidential election race.
Netflix released a documentary about Roger Stone, indicating an encouraging role he had played in Trump's candidacy for the presidency again.
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