A source at the Justice Department told NBC News’ Ken Delanian that career staff almost staged a walkout in protest of the overreach from the political appointees in the case of Roger Stone.
“I was even told by a source of talk of a protest today at the Justice Department of a walkout, but my source said they urged people not to do that because it was essentially placing a target on their back and identifying themselves as somebody for the Trump people to be concerned,” he explained.
“President Trump and William Barr both saying they didn’t confer about this decision to pull back on the sentencing recommendation, but my reporting is they didn’t have to because Barr had installed a loyalist as U.S. Attorney,” he went on. “As you said, he pushed out the existing attorney. He was supervising this case. They put in Timothy Shea, and I’m told raised questions about pulling back the sentencing guideline. The line prosecutors rebelled and said, ‘absolutely not,’ and filed the document, but Barr and his minions at the Justice Department weren’t having it, and they don’t have to tell Tim Shea to make the changes.”
Watch the full explainer below: