Roger Stone reacted Monday night to Donald Trump’s commutation of his sentence, saying, likening his once-impending trip to federal prison to a “near-death sentence” he avoided by the grace of God.
In his first televised interview since Friday’s commutation, Stone told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he’d been “up against the horrific and deep-pocketed resources of the federal government and the really sadistic, arrogant, politically-motivated prosecutors.”
“When you go through something like this, Sean, you find out who your real friends are,” he said, adding that Hannity himself had been a great friend.
Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison in February 2020 after having been found guilty three months earlier of seven felony charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Those counts included providing false statements to the House Intelligence Committee about contact with WikiLeaks, obstructing a congressional investigation of Russian election interference, and witness tampering.
Witness tampering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the other counts carry a maximum sentence of five years each. Following the conviction, Trump tweeted that Stone’s verdict was a “double standard” and accused figures like Mueller, Rep. Adam Schiff, former FBI director James Comey and Secretary Hillary Clinton of lying themselves.
Trump commuted the prison sentence of his longtime confidant on Friday, inflaming critics, who accused the president of “unprecedented, historic corruption,” among other things.
The commutation came two days before Stone was expected to begin his sentence in federal prison. In a statement to the press, the White House confirmed the commuting of the sentence and said Stone was a victim of the “Russia Hoax.”
Celebrating what he sees as close but failed encounter with “a near-death sentence,” Stone told Hannity, “I really want to thank God because I was literally hours away from being sent to a Covid-infested prison.”
Watch the interview below.