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Barr Under Fire as Public Uproar Over Justice Department Decision Increases

Masood Farivar

   A week after Attorney General William Barr overturned the Justice
   Department's recommendation for a stiff prison sentence for U.S.
   President Donald Trump's friend Roger Stone, the public uproar over
   political meddling in the U.S. system of justice rages.

   A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Stone will be sentenced Thursday
   while she decides whether to grant the presidential friend's request
   for a new trial. Stone's motion for a retrial came after Trump accused
   the jury forewoman in the case of "significant bias."

   He was convicted last November of seven counts, including lying to
   Congress about his role in Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential
   election and tampering with a witness.

   Whether or not Stone is given a new trial, the decision to sentence him
   rests with Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Trump has railed at Jackson for
   subjecting another former associate to solitary confinement. The
   likelihood that she will send Stone to prison has heightened
   speculation that Trump could respond with a pardon for a friend he
   thinks has been unjustly prosecuted.

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