Nancy Gertner:

It is extraordinarily unusual. It's extraordinarily unusual to have main Justice, you know, the upper echelons of the Justice Department, intervene in a case involving the line prosecutors.

Presumably the line prosecutors, the four who resigned, would have reviewed their recommendation already up the chain. In addition, the way — it's not just that he did it. It's also the way he did it. The notion that, after the president tweeted that, you know, these were rogue prosecutors, Barr stepped in and, you know, called for a second memorandum, very public display of displeasure with four prosecutors, asking — you know, essentially rejecting their recommendation.

Their recommendation, I might add, although I might have disagreed with it were I on the bench, was a guideline recommendation, was actually consistent with the federal sentencing guidelines, which Barr conceded.

So, it's very unusual. Usually, what a prosecutor would do in a situation like that would be go, before the judge and say, here's what the guidelines say. I understand, Judge, that you have a right to go below this, and that would have been communicating to the judge that the department really doesn't likely stand behind the guideline sentence, that, in fact, the judge could go below it.

But what Barr did was a shot across the bow to other prosecutors, which was really, really troubling, that he would intervene when he did for someone who was obviously a political crony. The precedent is very troubling.