Missing Golden Opportunity: Trump's Tweeting Thumbs Upset Scale of Justice

February 14, 2020  |  The Insider: White Collar Defense and Securities Enforcement

On Monday the career prosecutors who handled the trial of the president’s friend and former campaign advisor, Roger Stone, recommended that the court sentence Stone, convicted in November of obstructing Congress and witness tampering, to 87 – 108 months in federal prison, the sentence called for by the federal sentencing guidelines. Less than twenty-four hours later, at 1:48 a.m., President Trump weighed in with a tweet about the recommendation: “This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!” Putting aside, for a moment, the fact that the party on the “other side” in Mr. Stone’s case is none other than our own United States of America, with this tweet, the president attempted to put both thumbs on the scale in the criminal prosecution of his friend. What he missed unfortunately was the opportunity to focus legislators properly on the sometimes unduly harsh results of the sentencing guidelines in white collar cases. [...]

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