Klobuchar calls on Barr to testify in front of Senate after department rejects recommended Roger Stone sentencing

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) called on Attorney General Bill Barr to testify in front of the Senate after the Justice Department rejected frontline prosecutors’ recommended sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone. 

The Democratic presidential candidate said on CBS’s “Face The Nation” that she is “very glad” Barr will testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee but said she hopes he will speak under oath in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as well. 

The presidential candidate said Barr’s testimony would be “where we’re going to be able to get that answer” on whether President Trump influenced the Justice Department’s instructions for a “far less” sentence for Stone.

“The president is constantly tweeting out different requests of the Justice Department,” she said. “And I think here where you’ve got career prosecutors that made difficult decisions about how to handle this case, they got a conviction, they put their all into it, and then they get undermined on the sentencing.”

.@AmyKlobuchar calls for AG Bill Barr to testify before Congress after the @JusticeDept moved to recommend a lighter prison sentence than prosecutors sought of ex-Trump campaign associate Roger Stone. pic.twitter.com/HSNN43JbAA

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 16, 2020

Klobuchar added that the fact that all Justice Department prosecutors withdrew from the case, and one left the department as a whole, following the department’s call for a shorter sentence, is “not normal.”

“That is not normal at all,” she said. “You have to allow justice to have its course, and that means no political intervention.”

{mosads}The prosecutors had originally recommended a seven to nine year sentence for Stone after Trump’s long-time associate was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering. 

But the Justice Department stepped in saying it wanted a “far less” sentence for Stone after Trump tweeted the sentencing suggestion was unfair, sparking criticism from Democrats who say the president intervened in the decision to protect Stone.