The Justice Department views the prison sentence recommended for GOP operative Roger Stone as too severe.
A day after federal prosecutors called for seven to nine years, sources close to the Justice Department told reporters on Tuesday the agency believes such a punishment would be “grossly disproportionate” to the crime and may scale back the recommendation.
This apparent reversal came hours after President Trump called the sentencing recommendation “horrible and very unfair.”
Stone, 67, a former adviser to Trump, was found guilty in November of five separate counts of lying to the House Intelligence Committee regarding his role in the 2016 presidential election and beyond.
A jury found Stone guilty of concealing efforts to obtain then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails by way of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
In November, Stone’s daughter pleaded with Trump to pardon her father, and Twitter users also rallied around the eccentric “dirty trickster” on Tuesday morning.
