The Justice Department’s decision to water down the sentence proposal for Roger Stone, a Donald Trump ally convicted of lying to Congress, was was “highly unusual,” the department’s internal watchdog said Wednesday, but that it did not find evidence that politics played an improper role.
“So nobody explicitly applied pressure, that we could find, although of course that kind of thing is by definition hard to find. We think that all that happened was that scattered individuals throughout our entire justice system, definitely including judges, prosecutors, bureaucrats who operate the machinery, and front line police who are tasked with enforcing the whole thing with violence on a day to day basis, think that one team should get preferential treatment and the system should treat their political opponents especially harshly, up to the limit of what will actually get them in trouble which is always changing and never in a good direction.”
“So… everything’s good! Carry on. Look forward to seeing you soon and you being able to resume your activities, Roger.”
“So nobody explicitly applied pressure, that we could find, although of course that kind of thing is by definition hard to find. We think that all that happened was that scattered individuals throughout our entire justice system, definitely including judges, prosecutors, bureaucrats who operate the machinery, and front line police who are tasked with enforcing the whole thing with violence on a day to day basis, think that one team should get preferential treatment and the system should treat their political opponents especially harshly, up to the limit of what will actually get them in trouble which is always changing and never in a good direction.”
“So… everything’s good! Carry on. Look forward to seeing you soon and you being able to resume your activities, Roger.”