WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department inspector general’s office is investigating the department’s sudden shift to a lighter sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, according to multiple reports. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating the shift in the Roger Stone sentencing recommendation

  • The unusual move prompted four prosecutors to resign from the case

  • Prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky testified to Congress that the DOJ felt pressure to be lenient on Stone because of his relationship to President Trump

  • The Justice Department says it welcomes the review

Stone was convicted in November on seven counts of lying to Congress, obstructing justice and tampering with a witness as he attempted to thwart a House investigation into ties between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Federal prosecutors initially recommended Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison. But in February, Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department stepped in to overrule its own prosecutors by asking for a shorter sentence. The unusual move prompted four prosecutors to resign from the case.

One of those prosecutors, Aaron Zelinksy, testified to the House Judiciary Committee in June that Justice Department leadership pressured the prosecutors to ask for a lenient sentence because of Stone’s close relationship with Trump. Zelinksy said then-U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea was "receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break, and that the U.S. attorney's sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations."

Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison and fined $20,000, but Trump, who claimed his friend was treated “unfairly” in the courts, commuted the sentence in July.

NBC News was the first to report on the inspector general’s investigation, citing two sources familiar with the matter. One source said Zelinksy’s testimony prompted the probe. It’s not clear how deep into the investigation the watchdog office is, whom it has interviewed or whether it has found any evidence of wrongdoing. 

A spokeswoman for the inspector general told NBC News the office does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec confirmed the investigation to Politco, saying, “We welcome the review."