Posted on 02/11/2020 10:08:25 AM PST by karpov
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department will back off its sentencing recommendation for Roger J. Stone Jr., President Trump’s former campaign adviser and longtime friend, a senior department official said Tuesday, with senior department officials intervening to overrule front-line prosecutors who tried the case.
The move is highly unusual and is certain to generate allegations of political interference. It came after federal prosecutors in Washington asked a judge late Monday evening to sentence Mr. Stone to seven to nine years in prison on seven felony convictions for trying to sabotage a congressional investigation that threatened Mr. Trump. Early on Tuesday, Mr. Trump declared the sentencing recommendation “horrible and very unfair.
“The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!”
Both the sentencing recommendation and the president’s tweet took officials at Justice Department headquarters by surprise, according to a department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Stone case was ongoing.
The recommendation was higher than what the United States attorney’s office had told Justice Department officials it would suggest, according to the official, and the department decided soon after the filing to override the prosecutors’ decision.
The department had not discussed the recommendation with the White House or Mr. Trump, the official said.
“The department finds the recommendation extreme and excessive and disproportionate to Stone’s offenses,” the official said.
The Justice Department was to clarify its position in a court filing later on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum Monday that Mr. Stone, 67, should serve up to nine years because he threatened a witness with bodily harm and interfered with a congressional investigation. They also cited the fact that he violated a judge’s gag orders after he was charged in a federal indictment.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They also should reimburse Stone for his legal fees.
This is the fate of us all when the return to power
“should serve up to nine years because he threatened a witness with bodily harm and interfered with a congressional investigation”
Democrats do this every day, why aren’t they charged with cimes?
These Obama holdovers need to be sent to a new federal prison in north Alaska for sedition
The leftist progressive out-of-control DOJ prosecutors need to be reigned in way more than they have been. The DOJ should not be an arm of the DNC and George Soros.
Bullshit- pardon him
Pollitical prisoner of the Deep State.
“We are concerned about the President interfering in this case. Justice should be impartial, even for filthy, degenerate miscreants like Mr. Stone, whose massive crimes against the state boggle even the wildest imaginations of the criminal mind!”
They are talking about election interference, but the DNC got away with not turning over their server. Why does Trump have these prosecutors?
And the way they arrested him!
Mr. Stone ought to sue the bastards who staged the pre-dawn raid on his home, complete with dozens of heavily armed agents and an amphibious landing group!
Rousting a barefoot Mr. Stone and his deaf wife from their slumber and ransacking their home was despicable. However, they could be thankful that they emerged alive, instead of dead as in the case of Mrs. Randy Weaver who was murdered by the FBI as she held her baby at Ruby Ridge during Bill Clinton’s term.
No, we have not forgotten.
Expect another HOR investigation over President’s tweet. Then another impeach charge abuse of power, etc.
Stone did not do what he was accused of. His conviction is based on the theory that the Russians stole DNC and Hillary emails and Stone coordinated getting them to Wikileaks. All that happened was he was calling Wikileaks hoping to find out when new releases would happen.
As for the witness threat a liar said Stone told him he would steal his dog if he testified.
This entire case is just more of the FBI treason plot. Stone should get a full pardon.
I have yet to read one news report that specifically lays out Roger Stone’s convicted crime. What exactly are the facts in his case? Or is it just horseshit General Flynn type charges.
The whole case is like something straight out of a Soviet newsreel
It’s not a “justice” system. It’s a corrupt evil legal apparatus run by sociopaths.
May they rot in hell or China, whichever’s worse.
Bump!
Yep.
Didn’t Obama, in one of his first acts as President, FIRE all the Federal Prosecutors when he became President?
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