'Historic corruption': Mitt Romney unloads on President Trump for commuting Roger Stone's sentence

Sen. Mitt Romney trashed President Donald Trump early Saturday for commuting Roger Stone's prison sentence.

According to the Utah Republican, the president engaged in "unprecedented, historic corruption" by helping out his longtime friend and political adviser.

"Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president," Romney said.

Romney is the first Republican senator to speak out against Trump's decision.

The controversial move came just days before Stone was due to report to prison. Stone was convicted of seven criminal charges last year, which included lying to Congress, obstructing a congressional investigation, and witness tampering.

Earlier this year, a judge sentenced Stone to serve more than three years in federal prison.

However, Trump stepped in late Friday, signing an Executive Grant of Clemency to commute what the White House characterized as an "unjust sentence."

The White House statement continued:

Roger 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. There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia. Such collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to accept the result of the 2016 election. The collusion delusion spawned endless and farcical investigations, conducted at great taxpayer expense, looking for evidence that did not exist.
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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!

As expected, Democrats slammed Trump's decision.

"The American ideal of equal justice under the law is once again being undermined by a lawless president who regards the Justice Department as his personal plaything," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress should modify the presidential power to pardon and commute criminal sentences.

"Congress will take action to prevent this type of brazen wrongdoing," she said in a statement. "Legislation is needed to ensure that no President can pardon or commute the sentence of an individual who is engaged in a cover-up campaign to shield that President from criminal prosecution."