Livestream: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Briefing

WASHINGTON, DC — White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is scheduled to hold a news briefing at 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Monday, the first since President Donald Trump commuted the prison sentence of his longtime ally Roger Stone.

Stone, the so-called dirty trickster of American politics, was convicted of seven felony charges of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

He was to have reported to prison Tuesday to begin serving his 40-month sentence.

Trump commuted Stone's sentence Friday, saying that he was "very unfairly treated" in the probe.

In a statement, McEnany said Stone was "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," the statement continued.

Mueller, who has been reluctant to publicly speak about the investigation, defended his probe in an oped in The Washington Post Saturday, writing that Stone's conviction still stands, and rightly so.

"I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office," Mueller wrote. "The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes."

Democrats and some Republicans have condemned Trump's action. One of the strongest condemnations came from Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, who called the move "unprecedented, historic corruption" by "an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president."