Former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi will leave a North Carolina prison roughly two years before the end of his projected release date on account of his ailing health, federal Judge Mark Wolf ruled Thursday. Wolf allowed a government motion to reduce DiMasi's eight-year sentence to time served, ordering the Bureau of Prisons to release his to his wife Deborah DiMasi's custody on Tuesday morning.

"The court is ordering that DiMasi be released on November 22, 2016, in North Carolina, to the custody of his wife Deborah DiMasi. Mr. and Mrs. DiMasi shall return forthwith to their residence in Massachusetts," the ruling stated.

Wolf said the ex-speaker’s health has declined so precipitously that keeping him in prison was unjustified — a view shared by the U.S. Attorney in Boston, Carmen Ortiz. DIMasi’s wife has been fighting for this outcome since her husband’s diagnosis with a chronic illness requiring him to adhere to a strict food regimen. “It hopes that this decision will not prove to provide unusually favorable treatment for DiMasi, but rather that it will contribute to the enlightened and appropriately compassionate administration of justice for comparable inmates in the future,’’ Wolf wrote in his 69-page ruling.

The former speaker's legislative accomplishments were permanently tarnished by his corrupt scheme to secure $65,000 in bribes. A Democrat from Boston's North End, DiMasi once exerted immense influence on the 160-member House, working to uphold gay marriage, ice out the casino industry and rewrite state health care laws introducing an individual mandate on buying health insurance and setting up an exchange to shop for plans.

"Obviously Judge Wolf had a lot to do with that case in the first place, and I think he put it through what I would describe as the right steps to do a thorough review of it to make sure that the facts on the ground supported the recommendation that was being made by the prosecutor," Gov. Charlie Baker told the News Service. "He knows a lot more about this than I do. But if he believes at this point that that's the right thing to do and the prosecutors supported it, then I don't have a problem with it."

The current House speaker, Robert DeLeo, said that he is "elated and relieved" by DiMasi's early release, especially so close to Thanksgiving. "I’m grateful to U.S. Attorney Ortiz for recommending compassionate release for the Speaker and to Judge Wolf for giving the recommendation fair and prompt consideration," DeLeo said in a statement. "Speaker DiMasi and his family have been, and will continue to remain, in my thoughts and prayers."

Read the full ruling below.