“Four prosecutors from the Justice Department (DOJ) have withdrawn from their roles in the Roger Stone case, following the department’s decision to reduce the amount of prison time they are recommending for the Trump associate.
Aaron Zelinsky, Jonathan Kravis, Adam C. Jed, and Michael Marando
Prosecutors Aaron Zelinsky (pdf), Jonathan Kravis (pdf), Adam C. Jed (pdf), and Michael Marando (pdf) filed notices withdrawing from the case on Feb. 11. The move follows the department’s decision to override the sentencing recommendation of seven to nine years made by the federal prosecutors.
Along with withdrawing from the case, Kravis also will resign from his position as an assistant U.S. attorney. Zelinsky and Jed previously worked on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
(…) The charges were related to allegations that Stone had made false statements to the House Intelligence Committee during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and attempted to persuade a witness to give false testimony and withhold pertinent information from investigators.
On Feb. 10, the department filed a sentencing memorandum that urged the court to consider a sentence of 87 to 108 months, or 7 to 9 years (pdf). The prosecutors said the lengthy sentence would “send the message that tampering with a witness, obstructing justice, and lying in the context of a congressional investigation on matters of critical national importance are not crimes to be taken lightly.”
Then in a reversal on Feb. 11, the department said it was going to reduce the prison term they were seeking. A senior DOJ reporter told media outlets that the DOJ was not briefed about the recommendation and that the department “finds the recommendation extreme and excessive and disproportionate to Stone’s offenses.” The department has not announced what sentencing recommendation it would amend to.” (Read more: The Epoch Times, 2/11/2020) (Archive)