President Trump defended Roger Stone as being treated unfairly by the justice system ahead of his longtime associate’s scheduled sentencing hearing for witness tampering and lying to Congress.
“‘They say Roger Stone lied to Congress.’ @CNN OH, I see,” the president tweeted Thursday, “but so did Comey (and he also leaked classified information, for which almost everyone, other than Crooked Hillary Clinton, goes to jail for a long time), and so did Andy McCabe, who also lied to the FBI! FAIRNESS?”
“They say Roger Stone lied to Congress.” @CNN OH, I see, but so did Comey (and he also leaked classified information, for which almost everyone, other than Crooked Hillary Clinton, goes to jail for a long time), and so did Andy McCabe, who also lied to the FBI! FAIRNESS?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020
Trump’s comment follows a dust-up with Attorney General William Barr over Stone’s sentencing. Prosecutors initially recommended a prison sentence of seven to nine years for Stone. But after the president complained about the recommendation on Twitter, the Justice Department announced it would scale back the recommendation, leading the prosecutors on the Stone case to resign.
Barr has reportedly considered resigning because of Trump’s tweets directed at the Justice Department.
The department determined it would not prosecute former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for lying and former FBI Director James Comey for mishandling sensitive information. While on the campaign trail, Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, was hit with a scandal over her use of a private email address and server during her time as secretary of state but was never charged with a crime.
