A Justice Department watchdog revealed on Wednesday that there is no evidence President Trump forced Attorney General Bill Barr in 2020 to reduce the sentencing for longtime adviser Roger Stone.
DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz reported that Barr’s decision to override prosecutors’ recommendation for a harsher sentence for Stone was not influenced by Trump’s public criticism on social media.
“No law, rule, regulation or DOJ policy, including those related to conflicts or ethics prohibited Barr’s participation in the Stone sentencing and, therefore, the decision whether to participate was ultimately a discretionary one left to the judgment of the Attorney General,” Horowitz wrote in the 85-page report released by the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General.
Stone was convicted in November 2019 on seven criminal counts, including lying to Congress and obstructing a House investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia, an allegation fueled by a fake dossier written by openly anti-Trump partisan players and eventually debunked.
Federal prosecutors initially recommended a seven to nine-year prison sentence for Stone in early 2020, but senior DOJ officials overruled this and sought a shorter sentence. This led to the resignation of the four prosecutors who had recommended the original sentence, although the OIG report found that Barr acted within his discretion to correct what he saw as an unjust submission.
The report detailed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia had engaged in “extensive discussions” about Stone’s sentencing. During this time, interim U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea consulted with Barr, and they agreed that a sentence below the federal guidelines would be appropriate. Barr had no prior involvement in Stone’s case until Shea informed him of the prosecutors' recommendations. Barr later learned through media reports that prosecutors had recommended a sentence inconsistent with what Shea had discussed with him earlier in the day. Upon discovering this discrepancy, Barr immediately insisted it be corrected, which occurred hours before Trump’s tweet.
Aaron Zelinsky, one of the four prosecutors, testified before Congress that Stone received preferential treatment. The inspector general found Zelinsky’s belief that the trial team had been pressured for political reasons was not unreasonable, based on comments from another prosecutor.
Stone ultimately received a three-year prison sentence, which Trump commuted in 2020 before Stone was scheduled to report to prison. Trump later pardoned Stone in December 2020.
The DOJ watchdog’s investigation included interviews with 24 current and former department attorneys, including Shea and Zelinsky. Barr declined to participate in the interview process.
Read the OIG report here.
