Prosecutor: Trump ally Roger Stone was 'treated differently'

A federal prosecutor is prepared to tell Congress on Wednesday that Roger Stone, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was given special treatment ahe of his sentencing because of his relationship with president.

Aaron Zelinsky, a career Justice Department prosecutor who was part of special counsel Robert Mueller's team and worked on case against Stone, will say he was told by supervisors that political considerations influenced decision to overrule recommendation of trial team and propose a lighter prison sentence, according to testimony released by House Judiciary Committee.

Zelinsky w works in U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, and his testimony will feature extraordinary spectacle of a current prosecutor castigating decisions me by leership of Justice Department where he still serves. hearing is likely to d to scrutiny of Attorney General William Barr, who has alarmed Democrats in recent months with his efforts to scrutinize, and even undo, some of results of Mueller's Russia's investigation.

“What I heard — repeatedly — was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any or defendant because of his relationship to president,” Zelinsky says in prepared testimony.

panel subpoenaed Zelinksy and John Elias, a career official in department’s antitrust division, as part of its probe into politicization of department under Barr. Democratic-led panel and Barr have been feuding since shortly after he took office in early 2019, when he declined to testify about Mueller's report.

Democrats launched investigation earlier this year over Barr's handling of Stone case, but have expanded ir focus to several subsequent episodes in which y believe Barr is doing Trump's bidding. That includes department's efforts to dismiss criminal case against Gen. Michael Flynn and firing last weekend of top prosecutor in New York’s Sourn District. prosecutor, Geoffrey Berman, has been investigating president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nler, D-N.Y., has threatened to subpoena Barr himself for a hearing next week if he doesn't agree to appear. attorney general has never testified before panel.

Zelinsky, one of four lawyers who quit Stone case after department overruled ir sentencing recommendation, plans to say Wednesday that acting U.S. attorney at time, Timothy Shea, was “receiving heavy pressures from highest levels of Department of Justice to give Stone a break.”

He does t say who was doing pressuring but says re was “significant pressure” on line prosecutors to “obscure" correct sentencing guidelines and “water down and in some cases outright distort" what happened at Stone's trial and events that resulted in his conviction.

Before Stone’s Feb. 20 sentencing, Justice Department leership changed sentencing recommendation just hours after Trump tweeted his displeasure at recommendation of up to nine years in prison, saying it h been too harsh. Stone was later sentenced to serve more than three years in prison plus two years’ probation and a $20,000 fine.

Barr has said Trump's tweet played role in change. He said he ordered new filing hours before president’s tweet because he was caught off guard by initial sentencing recommendation and believed it was excessive based on facts of case.

Filing a new one was a “righteous decision based on merits,” he has told Associated Press.

According to his prepared testimony, Zelinsky will describe having learned from media that Justice Department planned to overrule trial team’s sentencing recommendation, something he said he found unusual given department’s conventional practice of t commenting on cases.

Though U.S. attorney’s office initially said reports were false, team was later told that a new sentencing memorandum would be issued that would seek a lighter punishment for Stone.

“We repeatedly asked to see that new memorandum prior to its filing. Our request was denied,” Zelinsky will say. “We were t informed about content or substance of proposed filing, or even who was writing it. We were told that one potential draft of filing attacked us personally.”

Zelinsky says he was also told that acting U.S. attorney was giving Stone such unprecedentedly favorable treatment because he was “afraid of President.”

Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said Barr h directed Shea to leave sentencing to discretion of judge, who ultimately sentenced Stone to a tably shorter amount of prison time than trial prosecutors h initially sought.

“tably, Mr. Zelinsky, a line prosecutor, did t have any discussion with Attorney General, U.S. Attorney, or any or member of political leership at Department about sentencing; inste, Mr. Zelinksy’s allegations concerning U.S. Attorney’s motivation are based on his own interpretation of events and hearsay (at best), t first-hand kwledge,” Kupec said in a statement.

Stone was convicted on all seven counts of an indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing House investigation into wher Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip 2016 election.

On Tuesday, Stone filed a motion asking to extend his surrender date until September because of coronavirus concerns. He is scheduled to report to a federal prison in Georgia by June 30.

In separate testimony released by committee, Elias plans to detail antitrust investigations that he says were started over objections of career staff. He says he asked department’s inspector general to investigate “wher se matters constituted an abuse of authority, a gross waste of funds, and gross mismanment.”

Justice Department said in a statement that it “strongly disagrees with Mr. Elias’s claim that Antitrust Division acted inappropriately in any investigation.”