Following reports that the Department of Justice is considering a reduction in the sentencing recommendation for former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone, Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California is demanding that the Senate Judiciary Committee hold a hearing on the matter, and she wants the attorney general to be called as a witness.
Harris sent her demand in a letter to the committee chairman, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and references the four prosecutors in the Stone case who submitted their resignation on Tuesday after the Justice Department announcement.
President Trump once again criticized the original decision to recommend seven-to-nine years and called it "a "miscarriage of justice" in a weekend tweet. He added that he thought the whole Justice Department prosecution team "ought to be ashamed of themselves" for making such "disgraceful" sentencing recommendations. The DOJ is now calling the recommendation "extreme and excessive."
"The Justice Department’s decision to overrule its career prosecutors, immediately after President Trump’s tweet, calls into question the independence and integrity of our legal system," wrote Harris. "As the committee responsible for oversight of the Justice Department, we must review these events and assess their impact on the integrity of the Department and our system of justice."
Harris also says that not meeting basic oversight responsibilities will send a signal to this and future administrations that the Senate no longer conducts itself as a co-equal branch of government.