The House Republican leader dismissed Democratic outrage at President Trump’s Monday night tweet denouncing the harsh sentencing guideline proposed by prosecutors for Roger Stone, one of the president’s longtime allies.
“There’s no issue here,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, told reporters Thursday. “It’s just like everything else that the Democrats want to play. They do not have facts. All they have is a mission to impeach. And this is all they continue to drive. When the rest of America would like to move on from their nightmares they put us through. … Let’s start working on the issues that America cares most about.”
Democrats accuse Trump of using his power to influence the actions of the Justice Department improperly.
Four prosecutors who recommended a seven- to nine-year sentence for Stone resigned after DOJ officials above them scaled back the guideline. Stone was convicted of lying to Congress and of witness intimidation stemming from the investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians.
[Related: Stone, Ukraine, and Durham: Barr’s Justice Department asserts itself in high-profile investigations]
Trump on Monday night tweeted that the sentence for Stone, one of his longtime allies and advisers, “is a horrible and very unfair situation.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, suggested she would have subpoenaed Attorney General William Barr to come testify before the Judiciary Committee if he had not agreed to come voluntarily on March 31 to answer questions about the Stone sentencing and other actions they believe the Justice Department has made on behalf of Trump.
“This is not what America is about,” Pelosi said. “It is so wrong.”
She called on the GOP to “speak out on this too.”
So far, most Republican lawmakers are standing by Trump and have pointed out that the original sentencing guideline for Stone was considered excessive.
“The president is not interfering because if you listen to the Department of Justice, they made the decision before the tweet ever went out,” McCarthy said.
