President Donald Trump lashed out after prosecutors recommended his longtime adviser Roger Stone should serve seven to nine years in prison.
Stone was convicted in November of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice.
On Monday, prosecutors recommended he be sentenced to between 87 and 108 months behind bars.
"Roger Stone obstructed Congress's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, lied under oath, and tampered with a witness," prosecutors told the court. "When his crimes were revealed by the indictment in this case, he displayed contempt for this Court and the rule of law."
The filing said Stone "made repeated efforts to obtain information from an organization called WikiLeaks that could help the Trump campaign.” "During this time period, Stone regularly communicated with senior Trump campaign officials," who "believed Stone was providing them with non-public information about WikiLeaks' plans" and "viewed Stone as the Trump campaign's access point to WikiLeaks,” the filing said.
Trump hints at pardon:
Trump lashed out at the recommendation on Monday night, retweeting numerous posts casting the filing as a travesty.
“Disgraceful,” Trump said.
"This is a horrible and very unfair situation," he added at around 1 am. "The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"
Legal analysts say Trump planning pardon:
"Either he's gearing up to pardon this crony / criminal," said CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, "or he's getting ready to deploy [Attorney General Bill] Barr against perceived politics enemies. Or both."
National security attorney Bradley Moss said Trump wouldn’t let his oldest political adviser serve hard time.
“Don’t worry, folks. The president won’t let his good buddy Roger Stone actually serve 9 years in jail,” he wrote. “The paperwork to commute the sentence of Stone and any sentence for Flynn likely is already drafted.”
