Attorney General William Barr should resign for intervening in the case of Roger Stone, President Donald Trump's longtime ally and confidant, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told MSNBC on Wednesday.
"This brazen assault on the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice is unprecedented," said Blumenthal, who serves on the Judiciary Committee.
Blumenthal accused Barr of "acting simply as a henchman – a political operative – of the president, who's always wanted the attorney general of the United States to be his . . . personal attorney."
Bumenthal added, "I think the judge is going to be very, very angry about this political interference and compromise of the integrity of the Department of Justice," suggesting it could backfire on Roger Stone.
The senator also called on the Office of Inspector General "to conduct an immediate, intensive investigation, because this kind of political interference is exactly the abuse of power, the dictatorial interference, that we all ought to resist."
Trump criticized the 7-9 year sentence recommended for Stone in a tweet Tuesday. The Department of Justice then announced it was changing its recommendation to a much lighter sentence, sparking the four prosecutors working on the case to resign from it, according to The Hill.
The president tweeted his congratulations Wednesday to Barr "for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought."
When asked if the sentence was indeed too severe, Blumenthal said perhaps that was so, but mitigating "factors are for the judge to consider," adding, "This type of interference is an insult not only to the judge, but to the jury that reached the verdict."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.