The criticism of commuting Roger Stone's 40-month prison sentence has President Donald Trump raging against "RINO" (Republican in name only) Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
Trump tweeted Saturday night:
"Do RINO'S Pat Toomey & Mitt Romney have any problem with the fact that we caught Obama, Biden, & Company illegally spying on my campaign? Do they care if Comey, McCabe, Page & her lover, Peter S, the whole group, ran rampant, wild & unchecked – lying & leaking all the way? NO!"
Trump likely expected the criticism from Democratic opponents in Congress, and Romney – a long-time critic and the only congressional Republican to vote for an article of impeachment, but Toomey has vowed to be an independent voice among the GOP, too.
"He was duly convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a congressional investigation conducted by a Republican-led committee," Toomey wrote in an email statement on Stone's commutation, per Bloomberg.
"The president clearly has the legal and constitutional authority to grant clemency for federal crimes. However, this authority should be used judiciously and very rarely by any president. While I understand the frustration with the badly flawed Russia-collusion investigation, in my view, commuting Roger Stone's sentence is a mistake."
Romney has been a much more vocal in his rejection of Trump's administrative actions.
On the latest rejection, Romney tweeted:
"Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office had no comment Saturday. Most Republican office-holders have also remained silent on Trump's move in the Stone case, or have been supportive.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday said he supported a reprieve for the long-time political operative.
Graham tweeted Friday:
"In my view it would be justified if President @realDonaldTrump decided to commute Roger Stone’s prison sentence. Mr. Stone is in his 70s and this was a non-violent, first-time offense."
Stone, who came to prominence working on President Richard Nixon’s 1972 campaign, is actually 67.
Former Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who ran a brief and unsuccessful primary campaign against Trump last year, also criticized the Stone move Saturday, tweeting in a pair of tweets.
"So much for the #RepublicanParty being the party of law and order. Have we not lost our minds in not condemning as a party the president’s pardon of corruption by #RogerStone.
"Pardoning someone who lies on behalf of one holding power is the mark of a third world banana republic. The president is taking us to new lows with his pardon of #RogerStone."
Information from Bloomberg was used in this report.