Barr takes control of legal matters of interest to Trump, including Stone sentencing via NBCNews
WASHINGTON — The U.S. attorney who had presided over an inconclusive criminal investigation into former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe was abruptly removed from that job last month in one of several recent moves by Attorney General William Barr to take control of legal matters of personal interest to President Donald Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
But that wasn't the first time senior political appointees reached into a case involving a former Trump aide, officials told NBC News. Senior officials at the Justice Department also intervened last month to help change the government's sentencing recommendation for Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
"This signals to me that there has been a political infestation," NBC News legal analyst Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney, said on MSNBC."And that is the single most dangerous thing that you can do to the Department of Justice." The interim U.S. attorney for Washington, Timothy Shea, was named by Barr on Jan. 30. His announcement noted it's the largest U.S. attorney's office in the country and highlighted Shea's"reputation as a fair prosecutor."
But, people familiar with the matter said, senior Justice Department officials pressured prosecutors to reverse course. On Jan. 29, the government filed a new document with the court saying a sentence of probation was"reasonable."The announcement Tuesday that the government would seek a lighter sentence for Stone came just hours after Trump called the recommendation that Stone serve seven to nine years in jail"horrible and very unfair.
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