The Dept. of Justice will intervene in the sentencing of Roger Stone by reducing the amount of time federal prosecutors requested on Monday. Prosecutors had asked for 7 to 9 years in prison for the President’s longtime friend, confidant, and former campaign advisor, but that all changed after an angry dead of night tweet from Trump.
“The Department finds seven to nine years extreme, excessive and grossly disproportionate,” a Senior DOJ official told Fox News producer Jake Gibson, hours after Trump’s 2 AM tweet.
“The Department was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation in the filing in the Stone case last night,” that official also said, according to Fox News.
Stone is being sentenced for witness tampering, lying under oath, and obstruction of Congress. He also was accused of posting an image seen by many as threatening the judge in the case. Prosecutors in their court filing said that when Stone’s “crimes were revealed by the indictment in this case, he displayed contempt for this Court and the rule of law.”
Trump went ballistic overnight, tweeting out a debunked conspiracy theory to protect Stone, calling the 7 to 9 year sentencing request “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!”
That last line led many to believe he plans to pardon Stone.
Former DOJ chief spokesperson Matthew Miller weighed in:
NY Times columnist Michelle Goldberg:
Economist David Rothschild: