NEW: US Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General has begun investigating the circumstances surrounding the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The career prosecutors had recommended the longer sentence in accordance with a 2017 policy put forth by Trump‘s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, which requires prosecutors to seek the maximum sentence called for under the guidelines unless there are significant mitigating circumstances.
One source familiar with the matter said comments made by Zelinsky during his testimony triggered the Inspector General's Office to open an investigation. It is not known how far the Office of the Inspector General has proceeded in its investigation, who they have interviewed or whether they have found any evidence of wrongdoing.
A federal jury convicted Stone of seven felonies after a trial in which prosecutors accused him of lying to Congress and intimidating a witness. They said he was trying to protect President Trump by misleading a Congressional investigation into ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
Zelinsky, who prosecuted the Stone case as part of his work with special counsel Robert Mueller, He said the U.S. Attorney, Timothy Shea was"receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break, and that the U.S. Attorney's sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations."
A spokesperson for the Drug Enforcement Administration, which Shea now runs, declined to comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the inspector general said the office does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.
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