DOJ to Reduce Recommended Sentence for Former Trump Adviser Roger Stone

The Justice Department is stepping back from a recommendation that Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, serve a stiff prison sentence following his conviction on charges of impeding congressional and FBI investigations into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

In an early-morning tweet Tuesday, Trump blasted federal prosecutors for urging a prison sentence of about seven to nine years for Stone, the veteran GOP political consultant and provocateur found guilty by a jury last year on seven felony counts brought by former special counsel Robert Mueller.

It looks like President Trump got his point across.

The Justice Department has decided to back off its earlier recommendation that Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone receive a sentencing of seven to nine years following his seven-count conviction last year for lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a House investigation into possible coordination between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. A department official confirmed the news to The Associated Press, describing the recommendation as "extreme, excessive, and grossly disproportionate" to Stone's offenses.

Upon learning about the initial recommendation, Trump...