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In their initial sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors said that Mr. Stone should serve up to nine years because he threatened a witness with bodily harm, deceived congressional investigators and carried out an extensive, deliberate, illegal scheme that included repeatedly lying under oath and forging documents.

Even after he was charged in a felony indictment, the prosecutors said, Mr. Stone continued to try to manipulate the administration of justice by threatening Judge Jackson in a social media post and violating her gag orders.

The combination of those factors contributed to significantly increasing the range of punishment recommended under federal sentencing guidelines to up to nine years, from 15 to 21 months, they said. While the guidelines are advisory, federal judges typically consider them carefully.

Defense lawyers characterized the prosecutors’ arguments as overblown. Mr. Stone not only never intended to harm the witness, they said, but he also never created any real obstacle for investigators. While the witness, a New York radio host named Randy Credico, refused to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, they pointed out, he was later repeatedly interviewed by the F.B.I., appeared before the federal grand jury and testified against Mr. Stone during his trial.

In a letter asking Judge Jackson to spare Mr. Stone a prison term, Mr. Credico said that while he stood by his testimony, he never believed Mr. Stone would carry out his threat to injure him or his beloved dog. “I chalked up his bellicose tirades to ‘Stone being Stone.’ All bark and no bite,” Mr. Credico wrote.

Mr. Stone’s defense team also said that his violations of Judge Jackson’s gag orders should not count against him because the criminal proceedings had exacerbated his “longstanding battle with anxiety” and that he had corrected that problem through therapy.

The decision to seek a more lenient punishment for Mr. Stone came less than two weeks after prosecutors backed off on their sentencing recommendation for Mr. Flynn. Prosecutors had initially sought up to six months in prison, then said they would not oppose probation instead of prison time.