All four federal prosecutors working on the case against Donald Trump’s associate Roger Stone resigned Tuesday following a row over sentencing recommendations.
The prosecutors filed a sentencing memorandum Monday requesting that Stone be given seven to nine years in prison. The requested sentence fell within the statutory guidelines for Stone’s crimes; he was convicted last fall of five counts of lying to congress, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstructing an investigation.
However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) backtracked on Tuesday, filing a supplemental sentencing memo. In the new memo, DOJ did not request a specific sentence and offered deference to the judge. But the revised request stated that the earlier memo did “not accurately reflect the Department of Justice’s position on what would be a reasonable sentence,” and the filing asked for “far less” than earlier requested.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson is scheduled to sentence Roger Stone on February 20 in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.