“I don’t like this chain of events where you have a … proceeding, a sentencing, a recommended sentence, the president weighs in and all of the sudden Justice comes back, says ‘change the deal.’ I think most people would look at that and say ‘hmm, that just doesn’t look right.’ And I think they’re right,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters.
“I think the president would be better served by never commenting on a pending federal investigations. I said that back when the Mueller investigation was going on, and it’s certainly the case when you’re at a sentencing stage,” Collins said, asked about Democrats’ claims of political interference. She referenced a separate DOJ probe by former special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal court to sentence Stone to “far less” than seven to nine years in prison — the time frame federal prosecutors had recommended on Monday.
“While it remains the position of the United States that a sentence of incarceration is warranted here, the government respectfully submits that the range of 87 to 108 months presented as the applicable advisory Guidelines range would not be appropriate or serve the interests of justice in this case,” the department said.
The decision from DOJ leadership came after Trump had publicly criticized the initial seven-to-nine-year sentencing recommendation, calling it “very unfair.”
“This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
Trump said on Tuesday that he did not instruct the Justice Department to change its sentence, but that he could have and that he thought the initial recommendation was “ridiculous.”