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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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Democrats have had no shortage of descriptors for President Trump's decision to commute Roger Stone's prison sentence. Since Trump granted clemency to his longtime confidant Friday night, Democratic lawmakers have described it as "appalling," "despicable," an abuse of power and a "mockery of our democracy."

Yet some harsh words Saturday came from a voice within his own party as well.

"An American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president," Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, tweeted Saturday morning, describing the move as "unprecedented, historic corruption."

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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Sunday that he wouldn’t have commuted President Trump associate Roger Stone.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Christie, who sat on the roundtable panel for “This Week,” whether commuting Stone’s sentence was “the right thing to do.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have done it, George, because I don’t think that the facts that surround the Stone prosecution support the idea of any type of clemency,” the former governor said.

Christie acknowledged that the president “has the right to do it” but maintained that “I wouldn’t have done it.”