⁍ The U.S. Justice Department has launched an internal inquiry into circumstances surrounding the decision to ease sentencing recommendations for President Donald Trump’s friend Roger Stone.

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⁍ A spokeswoman for the department’s inspector general said she can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

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⁍ In July, Trump commuted Stone’s sentence and proclaimed that Stone had been targeted by ‘an illegal witch hunt

– The Justice Department’s inspector general has launched an internal investigation into the decision to ease sentencing recommendations for President Trump’s long-time friend Roger Stone, Reuters reports. “We welcome the review,” a Justice Department spokeswoman says. The move comes after career prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky told lawmakers in June that his office was under “heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice” to ease its sentencing recommendation for Stone, a political ally of the president. “Roger Stone was being treated differently from every other defendant. He received breaks that are, in my experience, unheard of,” Zelinsky told the House Judiciary Committee. He and three other prosecutors withdrew from the case after senior department officials filed a new sentencing memo that backed away from the original recommendation of seven to nine years in prison. Stone, 67, was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering, and lying to Congress during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In July, Trump commuted Stone’s sentence and proclaimed that Stone had been targeted by “an illegal witch hunt.” The inspector general’s inquiry into Stone’s sentencing was triggered by Zelinsky’s testimony, NBC News reports. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General says she can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. (Trump commuted Stone’s sentence and proclaimed that Stone had been targeted by “an illegal witch hunt.”)