WASHINGTON — The lead prosecutor in Roger Stone’s criminal trial just quit his job in a shock announcement that intensified the swirling political-influence scandal over the sentencing of President Trump’s former close confidant.
The resignation of Aaron Zelinsky came hours after a late-night tweet from Trump expressing sympathy for Stone, a lifelong GOP political saboteur who was convicted of telling criminal lies to protect Trump from the Russia investigation.
Zelinsky didn’t publicly explain his motives. But the rare, sudden departure of a top prosecutor from the high-profile, politically-explosive case presented the unseemly spectacle of a federal prosecutor departing a case riven with internal disputes.
Moments before Zelinsky resigned, news broke that the Department of Justice plans to shorten Stone’s 7-9-year prison sentence recommendation, in a rare and stunning decision that would overturn the position of the field prosecutors who directly handled the case.
In a brief note to the judge, Zelinsky simply said he was out.
“The undersigned attorney has resigned immediately after this filing,” the document filed with Judge Amy Berman Jackson read.
Democrats howled in protest, arguing Trump may now be bending the American criminal justice system to the breaking point.
“It would be a blatant abuse of power if President Trump has in fact intervened to reverse the recommendations of career prosecutors at the Department of Justice,” said Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
