The 56-year-old newsman, a Fox News original who joined that network at its start in 1996, says he's relishing the fresh start. Smith left more questions than answers upon his Fox exit, leaving others to speculate about why. His 3 p.m. newscast stood out at a network where opinion is king, and sometimes he challenged statements made by the network's prime-time hosts. Asked about it, Smith said that “I had felt like it was time for a new challenge for a long time. With CNN, MSNBC and the broadcast networks courting Smith, CNBC was considered an underdog, at best.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump called Roger Stone to inform his longtime political confidant that he would commute his sentence for crimes related to the Russia investigation, Stone told The Associated Press on Friday, just days before he was set to report to prison. The president told me he thought my trial has been unfair, Stone told the AP in a phone call from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A commutation would not erase Stones felony convictions in the same way a pardon would, but it would protect him from serving prison time as a result. Trump had repeatedly publicly inserted himself into Stones case, including just before Stones sentencing, when he suggested in a tweet that Stone was being subjected to a different standard than several prominent Democrats. Trump went on a clemency spree in February commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov.