President Trump has denied being involved with the Justice Department's decision to override the original sentencing recommendation for his ally Roger Stone but described the original suggested seven-to-nine year prison sentence as a “horrible aberration” made by “ridiculous” prosecutors. “I thought that the recommendation was ridiculous. I thought that the whole prosecution was ridiculous," Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “I thought that it was an insult to the country. It shouldn’t happen.” The president also said the prosecutors in the case were the “same Mueller people who put everybody through Hell, and I think that it is a disgrace.” All four prosecutors withdrew from the case shortly after the DOJ announced its decision. Three of the prosecutors—Aaron Zelinsky, Jonathan Kravis, and Adam Jed—were on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team during the probe into 2016 Russian election interference.
“I didn't speak to the Justice—I would be able to—and I have the right to do it if I wanted to, but I stay out of things to a degree that people wouldn’t believe, but I did not speak to them,” Trump said. The DOJ decision to override came after Trump criticized the sentence recommendation on Twitter, though the DOJ claimed they decided to do so before Trump's tweet.
