[Red State] Democrats are accusing President Donald Trump of politicizing the sentencing of Roger Stone because he tweeted congratulating Attorney General William Barr for "taking charge of the case." Some Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), called for Attorney General Bill Barr to resign because the DOJ pulled back the recommendation by prosecutors for a 7-9 year sentence saying it was excessive. Four prosecutors quit in response to that action.
According to a senior DOJ official, the prosecutors lead DOJ officials to believe they were going to ask for a more moderate sentence than in fact they did and then were stunned when the prosecutors asked for a 7-9 year sentence for a non-violent first offense. The reason was because of a difference of opinion about the sentencing enhancement for an alleged "threat" to a witness. The witness himself said it wasn’t a real threat, that they kidded with each other all the time, he didn’t feel threatened and he told the judge he didn’t want Stone to serve jail time. But the prosecutors took the harshest view possible of that "threat," bumping what otherwise might have been a 2-3 year sentence to 7-9 years.
It’s just fundamentally silly to suggest that the DOJ doesn’t have the right to make their own decisions about recommendations and that the prosecutors’ opinion outweighs that of their superiors.
In his inimitable style former House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy just sliced and diced those attacks during an interview on Fox. |