Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Trump Denies Applying Pressure to Change Sentencing Recommendation for
Confidant

Steve Herman

   WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Donald Trump is denying intervention in
   his own government's sentencing recommendation for a political
   confidant convicted of lying to Congress.

   "I stay out of things to a degree that people wouldn't believe," Trump
   replied to a reporter in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon. "I
   didn't speak to them. I thought the recommendation was ridiculous. I
   thought the whole prosecution was ridiculous '¦ an insult to our
   country."

   Federal prosecutors the previous day had recommended a prison sentence
   of seven to nine years for Roger Stone, a Trump associate who faced
   charges stemming from then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's
   investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

.