***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
Without any evidence, the broadcast networks continued Wednesday to push the narrative that President Trump supposedly interfered with the sentencing of his longtime friend Roger Stone. And according to their accusations, a pair of Trump tweets were the smoking gun that proved he was “testing the independence of the Justice Department,” as CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell proclaimed.
As if she was speaking of something as a matter of fact, O’Donnell kicked off her struggling newscast by claiming: “President Trump is testing the independence of the Justice Department, thanking his Attorney General for taking charge of the case of his longtime friend Roger Stone, in an attempt to keep him out of jail.” That was a blatant lie from O’Donnell, the DOJ did want Stone to serve time.
Attorney General Barr had made it clear that Stone should be incarcerated, just not for the seven to nine years, federal prosecutors were chasing. As other news outlets had reported, in the filing overruling the prosecutors (which was a legal ability of the AG) DOJ leadership wrote that they were seeking “a sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months’ imprisonment would be reasonable.”
Despite the fact the White House and the DOJ said there was no coordination between the two, CBS White House correspondent Paula Reid suggested that was untrue and pointed to a tweet as her evidence. “The Justice Department insists there was no coordination with the White House. But this morning, the President congratulated Barr for his involvement,” she said.
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