It appears that the ridiculous sentence was the prosecutors call...so not actually the DOJ.
Kinda like Comey sentencing Martha Stewart to jail for something that HUNDREDS of politicians have done HUNDREDS of times.
I assumed as much. I'm thinking prosecutors are given little guidance by their superiors. It's go git 'im, so to speak. The attitude being, "we have an adversarial system; the system will take care of things."
So, I expect someone high up in the DOJ, or even DJT, finally noticed what a travesty this is, and also how it is viewed by core conservative voters.