Justice Department Watchdog Probing Handling of Stone Sentencing

Justice Department Watchdog Probing Handling of Stone Sentencing
Former advisor to President Donald Trump, Roger Stone, arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse, in Washington, on February 20, 2020. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
|Updated:

The Justice Department has launched an internal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the handling of the criminal case of Roger Stone, former political adviser to President Donald Trump.

The probe by the department’s inspector general will reportedly look into Attorney General William Barr’s February decision to override a sentencing recommendation for Stone made by rank-and-file prosecutors. The prosecutors recommended a sentence of seven to nine years in prison for Stone, but the department later filed another recommendation asking for a lighter sentence.