The federal judge overseeing Roger Stone’s case will hear from his defense team and from the Justice Department following the controversy that emerged after the DOJ changed its sentencing recommendation, CNN reports.
The Justice Department initially recommended that Stone be sentenced seven to nine years in prison after he was found guilty on seven charges, including witness tampering, obstruction, and lying to Congress. The department later lowered the recommendation, causing the four federal prosecutors handling the case to withdraw.
President Donald Trump, who is a longtime associate of Stone’s, recently called the judge’s objectivity into question, writing on Twitter: "Is this the Judge that put [former Trump campaign chairman] Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!"
Judge Amy Berman Jackson will talk with both sides by phone on Tuesday ahead of Stone’s scheduled sentencing on Thursday. The chief judge on the court that she sits on, DC District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell, said last week that “public criticism or pressure is not a factor” in determining how a judge sentences a defendant.
© 2021 Newsmax. All rights reserved.