11 Feb 2020 11:38 am
The Justice Department plans to reduce its sentencing recommendation for longtime President Trump confidant Roger Stone, after top officials were apparently blindsided by the seven-to-nine year penalty prosecutors urged a judge to impose, a senior Justice Department official said Tuesday.
In a stunning rebuke of career prosecutors that will surely raise questions about political meddling in the case, a senior Justice Department official said the department “was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation in the Roger Stone case last night.”
“That recommendation is not what had been briefed to the department,” the official said.
“The department finds the recommendation extreme and excessive and disproportionate to Stone’s offenses.
The department will clarify its position later today.”
The statement came hours after President Trump tweeted of the sentence prosecutors recommended, “This is a horrible and very unfair situation.
The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them.
Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... RASYk2G6EJ