The attorney general has faced withering criticism from former Justice Department officials, congressional Democrats and others in the past week after reversing a recommendation by trial prosecutors that Trump’s longtime friend, Republican operative Roger Stone, receive a prison term of between seven and nine years when he is sentenced Thursday for crimes related to lying to Congress and witness tampering.
Nearly 2,500 former Justice officials have signed a petition calling on Barr to resign because of the attorney general’s “actions in doing the President’s personal bidding.”
Barr has claimed that he decided to recommend a far less severe prison term after being blindsided by the first suggestion by prosecutors, but before Trump blasted that initial recommendation on Twitter hours after it was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Barr’s critics have been highly skeptical of his claim that he did not respond to Trump’s pressure.
On Tuesday, Trump joined calls for Stone to be granted a new trial, retweeting comments by a Fox News legal analyst who said that “almost any judge in the Country would order a new trial,” but “I’m not so sure about” Stone’s trial judge, Amy Berman Jackson.
Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/19/trump-tweets-justice-department-conspiracy-despite-barr-threat-to-quit.html
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