Roger Stone, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump was sentenced to 40 months Thursday on his convictions for witness tampering and lying to Congress.

That's about three years and four months.

Trump has unrelentingly defended of Stone, his longtime confidant.

The president's defense of Stone has led to a mini-revolt inside the Justice Department and allegations the president has interfered in the case.

After Justice Department prosecutors initially recommended that Stone receive seven to nine years in prison, Trump wrote on Twitter it was "horrible and very unfair" and a “miscarriage of justice”.

Attorney General William Barr then backed off that recommendation, prompting four prosecutors to quit Stone's case.

Stone was convicted in November on a 7 counts of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness, and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to sway the 2016 election.

He was the sixth Trump aide or adviser to be convicted of charges brought as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Any jail sentence seems likely to draw a public rebuke from Trump, who maintains that Stone's entire case is just an aspect of the ongoing “witch hunt” against him and his allies by bitter Democrats and the “deep state” inside the FBI and the Justice Department.

Given Trump's recent clemency spree that saw him commute the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, as well as nearly a dozen others, there has been speculation that Trump could eventually pardon Stone.

“I haven't given it any thought... but I think he's been treated very unfairly,” Trump said this week.

Overnight Thursday, Trump retweeted a conservative cable host's comment that what happened to Stone “should never happen again.”

Stone, 67, has denied wrongdoing and consistently criticized the case against him as politically motivated. He did not take the stand during his trial and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his defense.

Barr later said in an ABC News interview that he had not been asked by Trump to look into the case. In a stunning public rebuke, he said the president's tweets were making it “impossible” for him to do his job.

The public debacle also prompted a rare statement from the Chief Judge of the D.C. District Court, Beryl A. Howell, who said “public criticism or pressure is not a factor” in judges' sentencing decisions.

Story with information by the Associated Press.