In the United States, the four prosecutors of Roger Stone resigned. Stone is the former adviser to President Donald Trump, but there were seven complaints against him, including for lying in Congress.
Yesterday, the four prosecutors demanded a prison sentence of 7 to 9 years. But that aroused Trump’s anger and he played in a few tweets. The Ministry of Justice now calls the claim “excessive and unjust”. Experts fear that the prosecutors have stepped up under pressure from the president.
In November 2019, Roger Stone was found guilty of a series of charges, including lying to the US Congress.
The punishment had yet to be determined and therefore the prosecutors demanded a jail term Monday between 7 years and 3 months and 9 years. But Trump himself found that punishment is excessive and ventured on the social networking site Twitter.
On the same day, the Ministry of Justice copied the punishment that the prosecutors demanded. A link was immediately established: the White House had put pressure on the Ministry of Justice, and that had put aside the prosecutors’ demand, and Trump had followed.
At the ministry itself, it sounds different, as they state that the decision to lower the sentence was already taken on Monday, so for Trump’s tweet and that the White House was not aware of that decision.
Trump himself said to journalists yesterday that he had not spoken to people from the ministry, but that he could “if I wanted to, I have the right”.
