Headline: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/16/806525297/1-100-former-doj-employees-call-on-barr-to-resign-after-intervening-in-stone-cas

Over 1,100 former Department of Justice officials have called for the Attorney General’s resignation after the department suggested a lighter prison sentence for Roger Stone.

I have kept up with this story since last week, when Attorney General William Barr came under fire for having the Justice Department reject the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s recommendation of a nine year prison sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone.

The Justice Department released a memo calling for a lighter punishment and told NPR that it was “shocked” at the U.S. Attorney’s sentence recommendation. Stone was convicted last year on charges that included making false statements to Congress and witness tampering.

The story links to the letter released Sunday by the former officials, which was published on Medium and includes a document with signatures of the 1,100. Bobby Allyn, who wrote the article, paraphrases the letter’s content, saying that the officials “wrote that Barr’s intervention in the Stone case has tarnished the department’s reputation.”

In the next paragraph, an actual quote from the letter is included; Allyn has chosen a great quote, in which the officials say, “A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the President.” The officials continue to say that a government that uses its power to attack enemies and reward allies is an autocracy.

Allyn’s first quote is very impactful and from the source that serves as the reason for his article; therefore, it is the best quote he could have used. Allyn then smartly contrasts that quote with a tweet from President Trump, in which the President sides with the Attorney General.

Trump’s tweet focuses on on the his opinion that Stone’s case was invalid because he bevies the Robert Mueller investigation was invalid. He calls it “a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought. Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted.”

Allyn includes the tweet, but he doesn’t do any reporting to dissect its content. The article makes no case of Robert Mueller’s investigation or how it led to Stone’s arrest. I think that this information is vital backstory to understand why the President is making such a claim.

Instead, Allyn moves to his next source, one of the former officials who signed the letter, who says that the Justice Department should not be influenced by the White House. While this source is really good and her quote adds to the story, it is somewhat “more of the same.”

Allyn tries to get a complementary source from the Justice Department to respond to the letter, but the spokeswoman declined to comment. Instead of not including a source from that perspective, perhaps Allyn could have gotten a quote from a political scientist or expert on how the Justice Department will be affected by this or how it should respond.

The story then provides a vital piece of information: it reveals the name of the judge who will be making the final sentencing decision. Allyn could have tried to get in touch with a spokesperson or even another judge to see how severe sentences usually are for similar charges in similar political situations.

Allyn does mention that Barr criticized Trump in ABC News interview last week about the President’s tweeting making it hard to do his job. It is interesting that the White House knew of the interview before it aired; it would have been difficult to get an opinion from the White House on it, since the source included is unnamed, but a quote on the White House’s opinion on the interview would greatly enhance the story.

The article contrasts Barr’s criticisms of Trump with a quote from the letter in which the former officials accuse Barr of carrying out the President’s personal favors.

Allyn concludes the article by identifying the nonprofit legal organization that had the letter comprised. This information is important to how the letter originated and belonged higher in the story.

Overall, this is a solid hard news story about calls for the Attorney General’s resignation. If the reporter wants to follow up on the story, he could get a statement from the Attorney General’s office to see how Barr is responding to the letter. This could result in a confrontational statement, such as an outright refusal to resign or an admonishment of the former officials who penned the letter.

Another follow-up idea is to report on what is expected to happen at Barr’s House Judiciary Committee testimony next month.