(Washington) An influential Republican senator joined his voice on Saturday with those of the Democrats to denounce as an act of "corruption" serious the decision of Donald Trump , the day before, commute the sentence of his longtime friend Roger Stone.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a regular critic of Donald Trump, is the first influential member of the presidential party to speak out against this decision.
"Unprecedented historic corruption: an American president commutes the prison sentence of a person convicted by a jury for lying in order to protect the same president, "tweeted Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential candidate for 2012.
The Utah senator is the only member of the Grand Old Party to have voted in February in favor of the removal of Donald Trump as part of the Ukrainian affair.
Roger Stone was found guilty in November of lying to Congress and defrauding witnesses as part of the investigation into possible links between the Trump and Russia campaign team during the presidential election of 2016.
Trump's political advisor intermittently for more than 20 years , known for his sulphurous style and his Richard Nixon tattoo on the back, the colorful sixty-something man was condemned to pass 40 months behind bars.
He had appealed but was scheduled to start serving his sentence next week.
But Donald Trump had never hidden his desire to save the prison from his former adviser. "Roger Stone was the target of a witch hunt that should never have taken place," he said in a tweet on Saturday morning.
"Victim of the Russian hoax perpetrated by the left and its allies in the media", Roger Stone is now "a free man", had said Friday the White House.
He said he was "incredibly honored" for this presidential "leniency".
"Two courts"
Since then, the Democrats have been crying out for scandal.
"Donald Trump's decision to commute the sentence of his campaign adviser Roger Stone [...] is an astonishing act of corruption," said Friday the head of the Democrats in the American Congress, Nancy Pelosi.
"Congress will take steps to prevent this kind of shameless wrongdoing," she said in a statement. "We need to legislate to ensure that no president can pardon or commute the sentence of an individual involved in a cover-up campaign to protect the same president from criminal prosecution. "
The elected democrat Adam Schiff, who led the team of prosecutors during the trial for the impeachment of the president, for his part estimated: "With Trump , there are now two justice systems in the United States: one for Trump's evil friends, and one for everyone else. "
Roger Stone is one of six members of the entourage, more or less close, of the New York billionaire to have been charged or sentenced in the wake from the Russian investigation.
Describing himself as "a regular at pummeling", he was found guilty of lying to Congress about his contacts with the WikiLeaks organization regarding democrat emails hacked during the campaign of 2012.
Prosecutors demonstrated that he lied and intimidated witnesses to protect Donald Trump from embarrassment.
The President had intervened during the legal proceedings by criticizing, in tweets, the initial recommendations of the prosecutors responsible for investigating this case. The latter, on whom Donald Trump had been accused of exerting pressure by flouting the separation of powers, had recused themselves, and the Justice of Justice recommendation for sentence had been lowered.
The president also challenged the FBI's methods during the arrest of Roger Stone, by heavily armed men in front of CNN cameras, as well as the fairness of his trial.