UPDATED: About That "Extreme, Excessive and Grossly Disproportionate" Stone Sentencing Recommendation
I'm glad I didn't bother writing about the Roger Stone sentencing recommendation--between 87 and 108 months in prison--and contented myself with linking a tweet that called the Team Mueller prosecutors "animals." This morning Fox News is reporting: DOJ expected to scale back Roger Stone's 'extreme' sentencing recommendation :
The Justice Department is preparing to change its sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone after top brass were "shocked" at the stiff prison term initially being sought, according to a senior DOJ official.
...
“The Department was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation in the filing in the Stone case last night,” the official told Fox News. “The sentencing recommendation was not what had been briefed to the Department.”
The department is now expected to scale that back.
“The Department finds seven to nine years extreme, excessive and grossly disproportionate to Mr. Stone’s offenses,” the source told Fox News, adding that the DOJ will clarify its position on sentencing later Tuesday.
A "senior official" speaking for "top brass?" Hmmmm. Can you say: Bill Barr. And about that "not what had been briefed to the Department"--does that mean the prosecutors LIED to the Department? Really, what else could it mean? More clarity, please!
UPDATE: Sean Davis at The Federalist raises some disturbing questions-- Mueller Prosecutors May Have Lied To DOJ About Stone Prison Sentence Recommendation :
Fox News reported earlier today that DOJ was blindsided by the formal recommendation from operatives tapped by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Stone be sentenced to up to nine years in prison. A source told Fox that the sentence recommendation was “extreme, excessive, and grossly disproportionate” to Stone’s crimes.
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The report from Fox News suggested that DOJ was in the process of rescinding the rogue prosecutors’ recommendation.
Sources told The Federalist that Timothy Shea, who was recently appointed to take over as the top federal prosecutor in D.C. earlier this month, was bullied into agreeing to the sentence recommendation by Adam Jed and Aaron Zelinsky, who were originally tapped by Mueller to investigate whether Donald Trump treasonously colluded with the Russian government to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. ...
Shea’s acquiescence to the demand by the disgruntled former Mueller operatives raised questions about whether Shea was operationally in control of the D.C. prosecutor’s office, or whether he had effectively outsourced major decisions in high-profile cases to Mueller’s former deputies.
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Shea, Criminal Division Chief Thomas Martin, and a press contact for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication of this article.
The only place any form of the word "Lie" appears is in the title of the article. What we're told in the body is that--OMG!--bullying is going on at the USAO in DC! Are you kidding me? You're USA in the most important USAO in the country and you're being bullied by prosecutors? It took Trump raising Holy Hell on Twitter and--in all likelihood--a tear-ass phone call either from AG Barr or approved by Barr to get you to realize you're in charge?
That's an inauspicious start.