By Dareh Gregorian, Geoff Bennett, Pete Williams, Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander
President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of former campaign aide Roger Stone, sparing his longtime adviser from having to report to prison next week.

“Roger Stone has already suffered greatly,” the White House said in a statement. “He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!”

A source told NBC News Trump called Stone on Friday night to tell him the news.

The announcement came shortly after a federal appeals court denied Stone’s emergency motion to delay his July 14th surrender date.

Stone lawyer Robert Buschel told NBC News “We are grateful and relieved. And glad this nightmare is over.”

Another of Stone’s attorneys, Grant Smith, said his client is “incredibly honored that President Trump used his awesome and unique power under the Constitution of the United States for this act of mercy.”

Asked earlier on Friday if he planned on intervening in Stone’s case, Trump said, “I’ll be looking at it. I think Roger Stone was very unfairly treated as were many people.”

In the White House statement, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said “Stone 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.”

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She also blasted the “out-of-control Mueller prosecutors” who brought the case, the FBI agents who arrested Stone, and, as Trump himself has done, even criticized the jury that convicted Stone in “the case that never should have existed.”

But, she added, Trump “does not wish to interfere” with Stone’s efforts to get a new trial. “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,” she said.

Stone told SiriusXM Thursday he was hoping for a commutation so he could continue fighting the charges in court. “I would still have to battle it out on appeal, which frankly I want to do, because I want an opportunity to clear my name,” he said.

Some of Trump’s advisers urged him not to intervene in the case at all for fear it could hamper his re-election bid, NBC News reported earlier Friday.