Stone Sentencing Backlash: Democrats Call For Investigation
(NBC News) President Trump congratulated Attorney General William Barr Wednesday for handling what he calls “a case totally out of control” run by “rogue prosecutors” who “cut and ran after being exposed.”
His comments came one day after the entire team of federal prosecutors withdrew from the case after the Department of Justice recommended a reduced sentence for former Trump advisor Roger Stone.
“Roger Stone was treated horribly and so were many other people. Their lives were destroyed,” the president said while speaking to reporters at the White House Wednesday afternoon.
One of the prosecutors resigned after the Justice Department reversed their recommendation that Stone get seven to nine years in prison for lying to Congress and obstructing the Russia investigation.
The change in sentence recommendation happened just hours after the president complained it was too harsh.
“You have murderers and drug addicts, they don’t get nine years,” Mr. Trump said. “Nine years for doing something that nobody can even define what he did.”
Top Democrats immediately questioned the circumstances surrounding the Department of Justice’s change in position.
“What is more swampy, what is more fetid, what is more stinking – than the most powerful person in the country literally changing the rules to benefit a crony guilty of breaking the law?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked.
How much jail time Stone gets, if any, remains up to the judge.
Senator Schumer is asking the Justice Department Inspector General to investigate.
Attorney General Barr will testify to the House Judiciary Committee next month, his first appearance before the committee since the Mueller report was issued.
Read more: https://nbcnews.to/39yYMEd
