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					Originally Posted by WTF  A jury convicted Stone....what are you crying about the Judge for? 
 She gave Trump what he wanted. Less than 7-9 years.
 
 She gave him 40 months....sounds fair.
 
 This verdict is not getting overturned.
 
 Trump is going to have to Pardon Stone.
 
 Barr is even saying Stone is guilty.
 
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No, Barr said the sentence was excessive and it was. doesn't mean he thinks Stone is guilty.
Barr was right, the left was wrong | Opinion
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/com...-20200221.html
    It is a sign of our times that Attorney General William Barr tried to  do something right and some illiberal liberals, including not a few in  the media, decided that it was wrong on the basis of mindless  presidential squawks, factual ignorance, and in some cases, political  opportunity.
     What it adds up to is that the illiberal liberals are doing what they  accuse Barr of doing, namely going to war with justice and other basic  democratic principles. But at least Judge Amy Berman Jackson saw the  light.
    What she did was sentence Roger Stone to three years and four months in  prison instead of the seven to nine years initially recommended by four  prosecutors whose numbers included two Mueller probe attorneys. There  are experts saying they were way out of line, but let’s get there by  first observing that Stone is an author, a long-term political player  majoring in wily tricks, and a friend of President Donald Trump’s —  enough right there to get him in trouble
     Back during the 2016 campaign, he tried to communicate with WikiLeaks,  which was passing around emails revealing behind-doors discussions in  Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He tried to get a radio host to back up  misinformation and he didn’t. Stone then told him he should prepare to  die and that he would kill his dog if he didn’t shut up.
    There was a trial, Stone was found guilty, and it was then that the  prosecutors recommended putting him in prison for seven to nine years.  However, these guys do not act independently but have to report to a  Department of Justice supervisor, who reviewed the sentencing  recommendation they wanted to hand the judge and who first off is  reported to have said this doesn’t work.
     Experts explain that there are sentencing guidelines and varied factors  that can be taken into consideration. For instance, we are informed,  the radio host, also a leftist comedian, knew Stone well enough not take  the threat about his dog or dying seriously, and that would seem to  mean there was no violence in the tampering. It has also been observed  that Stone was a first offender, that he was 67 years old and in bad  health, and that the Mueller probe never found any kind of illegal  collusion with the Russians.
    The Justice Department supervisor reportedly said the sentencing should  be something between three and four years, and the prosecutors snarled  and threatened to resign, which means that either way they would get  their way — get the sentence recommendation they wanted, or make the  department look like a political coddler.
     The supervisor is said to have backed down, but Barr and others looked  at the issue. Trump jumped in, broadcasting how awful the sentence  recommendation was, and the world came tumbling down. Barr, who also  wanted a milder sentence, asked Trump to please shut up, and then, when  he didn’t, threatened to resign, but we still had partisan punchers in  Congress saying Barr should resign.
  On top of that, there were 1,100 former Justice Department employees  asking for his resignation through a nonprofit group that one journalist  disclosed had been founded by progressives who also cheered the Mueller  probe. Then there were the judges who also objected to the new  recommendation, even though it was still just a recommendation. The  court did not have to heed it.
     Even though Trump is an outrage who just keeps on giving to his  political enemies, it is a fact that federal prosecutors are answerable  to the Department of Justice. As Kimberley Strassel in the Wall Street  Journal has argued, the idea that all federal officials out there should  be unanswerable to anyone is a description of the administrative state  that more and more runs our affairs.
  Some things to keep in mind: The whole trial may be thrown out because  of apparent anti-Stone bias by a juror. The Justice Department has  outright skipped prosecuting some highly suspect liberal folks. And the  left hates Barr, maybe the best thing that has happened to the Trump  administration, because he secured a superb prosecutor now investigating  possible criminal activity by officials involved in phony FISA warrants  and the Mueller probe.
    
Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for the Tribune News Service. speaktojay@aol.com