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Wednesday 12 February 2020

Trial team quits Roger Stone case in dispute over sentence

Continued from Front tured the president's atten- against Stone last fall.
tion. The episode was the Each had signed onto a
The department said the latest to entangle the Jus- Monday sentencing memo
decision to shorten the sen- tice Department, meant that recommended be-
tencing recommendation to operate free from White tween seven and nine
was made Monday night House sway in criminal in- years in prison for Stone,
— before Trump's tweet — vestigations and prosecu- who was convicted of ly-
and prosecutors had not tions, in presidential politics. ing to Congress, witness
spoken to the White House The four attorneys, includ- tampering and obstructing
about it. Even so, the res- ing two who were early the House investigation into
ignations of the entire trial members of special coun- whether the Trump cam-
team broke open a sim- sel Robert Mueller's Russia paign coordinated with
mering dispute over the team, comprised the entire Russia to tip the 2016 elec-
punishment of a Trump ally Justice Department trial tion. None lent their names
whose case has long cap- team that won convictions to a Tuesday memo that
In this Nov. 12, 2019 file photo, Roger Stone, a longtime
Republican provocateur and former confidant of President
Donald Trump, waits in line at the federal court in Washington.
Associated Press

called the original recom- shorter sentence because
mendation excessive. they had been taken by
The resignations leave in surprise by the initial rec-
limbo the resolution of a ommendation. The person,
case that was one of the who was not authorized to
signature prosecutions of discuss the matter publicly
Mueller's team and that and spoke on condition of
cut to the heart of his mis- anonymity, said prosecu-
sion — to determine wheth- tors had told the depart-
er the Trump team had ment to expect a recom-
access to nonpublic infor- mendation for a shorter
mation about Democratic sentence.
emails hacked by Russian It is extremely rare for Jus-
operatives and provided tice Department leaders
to WikiLeaks. to reverse the decision of
The Justice Department's its own prosecutors on a
leader, Attorney General sentencing recommen-
William Barr, has been a dation, particularly after
steady ally of the presi- that recommendation has
dent's since taking the po- been submitted to the
sition. Barr last year cleared court. Normally, U.S. attor-
the president of obstruction neys have wide latitude
of justice even when Muel- to recommend sentences
ler had pointedly declined on cases they prosecute.
to do so, and Barr has de- A mass exodus from a
clared that the FBI's Russia case is even rarer, though
investigation — which re- the tumult did conjure an
sulted in charges against episode from last summer
Stone — had been based when Justice Department
on "bogus narrative." lawyers abruptly left a law-
It's not clear what sen- suit over whether a citi-
tence the department will zenship question could be
ultimately seek — a new added to the census. The
sentencing memo filed day of upheaval began
Tuesday evening indicated with a morning tweet from
that the original recom- Trump that the Stone case
mendation was too harsh was a "miscarriage of jus-
but proposed no recom- tice." He later told report-
mended punishment of its ers he didn't speak to Jus-
own. A Justice Department tice Department officials,
official said authorities de- though he said he could if
cided to step in and seek a he wanted. q