We’ll definitely have more on this soon, but the Justice Department ended up standing by all the sentence enhancement recommendations for Roger Stone that it made in the original sentencing memo it filed in the case, before dramatically repudiating that memo later.
What happened behind the scenes exactly? Why did Barr so badly damage DOJ for so little apparent gain? I’m not sure there are satisfying answers to these questions. More soon.
The Roger Stone sentencing hearing continues … and the judge appears to be edging closer to announcing the sentence. Follow our coverage here.
Longtime political operative and President Trump confidante Roger Stone will be sentenced this morning, bringing to a close a tumultuous and outright bizarre case that spun out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
Or not.
Join
Tierney Sneed is at the federal courthouse in DC for Roger Stone’s sentencing this morning. She’ll have the proceedings for you in real time here.
A few weeks ago, the sentencing of Roger Stone seemed like it would be an anti-climax, a colorful footnote to the historic Mueller probe. But now it has become ground zero for the epochal battle to protect the rule of law from the assault of Donald Trump.
How will that play out today?
Join
The Atlantic published an article yesterday speaking to various Democrats about a primary campaign Bernie Sanders floated against Barack Obama in the 2012 election. Joe Biden referenced that would-be Sanders 2012 campaign in his post-debate comments last night. The senator ultimately didn’t run, and his aides say he was never serious about it.
But another episode in the article stood out.
Join
A fascinating night with Michael Bloomberg on the stage for the first time and an inspired performance from Elizabeth Warren, but could the night have gone any better for Bernie Sanders?
Warren goes after Bloomberg over NDAs concerning alleged sexual harassment at his company pic.twitter.com/ugqlkdqYH3
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) February 20, 2020
Elizabeth Warren spent the first hour of the debate mopping the floor with Michael Bloomberg.
Just returning quickly to the Elizabeth Warren evisceration of Michael Bloomberg:
Elizabeth Warren started the night off with a slashing attack on Michael Bloomberg from which he doesn’t yet seem to have recovered. But in her next go around, Warren launched broadsides against Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and to a lesser extent Sanders, over their health care plans. She followed up with another sharp line of attack on Buttigieg and Klobuchar.