It is a sign of our times Attorney General William Barr tried to do something right and some illiberal liberals, including not a few in the media, decided it was wrong on the basis of mindless presidential squawks, factual ignorance and in some cases political opportunity. What it adds up to is the illiberal liberals are doing what they accuse Barr of doing, namely going to war with justice, but at least Judge Amy Berman Jackson saw the light.
What she did was sentence Roger Stone to three years and four months in prison instead of the seven to nine years initially recommended by four prosecutors whose numbers included two Mueller probe attorneys. There are experts saying they were way out of line. Let’s look.
During the 2016 campaign, Stone tried to communicate with Wikileaks, which was passing around emails revealing behind-doors discussions in Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He had gotten in touch with a radio host who seemed to him to know something who could help Donald Trump but who decided instead to squeal on him. Stone then told him he deserved to die and that he would kill his dog if he didn’t shut up.
The Stone arrest was show biz at its most spectacular as armed police surrounded his house in military getup. Soon, four prosecutors were piling charge upon charge on him, with the main one: violent tampering. There was a trial, Stone was found guilty, and prosecutors recommended seven to nine years in prison. However, these guys do not act independently but have to report to a Department of Justice supervisor, who reviewed the sentencing recommendation and said this doesn’t work.
Experts explain there are guidelines, and there are guidelines, one set aimed at looking at the criminal crimes and others looking at a variety of other considerations aimed at being fair and human. For instance, the radio host, a leftist comedian, knew Stone well enough not take the threat about his dog or dying seriously, and that erases the word “violent” from tampering. Also, Stone was a first offender with no known connections to organized crime, and he was 67 years old and in bad health.