Trump Pardon of Roger Stone Would Show 'Real Contempt' for Department of Justice, ABC Legal Analyst Says

ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams warned Thursday that if President Donald Trump decided to pardon his former adviser Roger Stone, Trump would be "showing real contempt for the Department of Justice."

Stone received a sentence of 40 months in prison after being convicted of obstructing a congressional investigation of Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Originally, federal prosecutors recommended a sentence for Stone with a maximum of nine years. After the DOJ indicated they would seek a reduction of that sentence, the four prosecutors who made the initial sentence recommendation withdrew from the case.

During a Thursday speech in Las Vegas, Trump said he believes Stone could be exonerated but would not make a decision on pardoning Stone right away.

"I'm following this very closely," Trump said, "and I want to see it play out to its fullest because Roger has a very good chance of exoneration, in my opinion."

"At some point I'll make a determination," Trump added, "but Roger Stone and everybody has to be treated fairly and this has not been a fair process."

Abrams told ABC News that the length of Stone's sentence came as no surprise.

"Remember," Abrams said, "in a typical case prosecutors will often come in at a higher recommendation than a judge ends up sentencing the person to, so it's not that surprising that the initial prosecutors came in at seven to nine years. Definitely on the high end."

"But remember, if the president does pardon Roger Stone now, that is showing real contempt for the Department of Justice," Abrams continued. "The Department of Justice, again through [U.S. Attorney General] William Barr and the new prosecutors who are there, have again said this is a righteous prosecution, that Stone deserves prison time. For the president to step in at this point is to really again, I think, put him at odds with his Department of Justice."

Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Abrams said that although the president's actions are more important than what he says.

"If we see that this has all been a setup—meaning everything he's been saying and doing, and the other pardons that we saw earlier this week—as a set up to pardon Roger Stone, again I think that has to be viewed as a rebuke of his own Justice Department. [He's] basically saying, 'You guys never should have prosecuted this guy and I'm going to fix it.'"

Trump commented on Stone's original sentence recommendation calling it a "horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"

Rumors of an internal struggle between Trump and the DOJ came to the surface after Barr told ABC News in a February interview that Trump's tweeting about pending litigation made it "impossible" for Barr to perform his duties.

"To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we're doing our work with integrity," Barr said.