Former prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office on Thursday endorsed the New York City Bar Association’s call for investigations into the Justice Department’s about-face earlier this week in the sentencing of President Donald Trump’s longtime ally Roger Stone, saying the move could foreshadow further erosion of prosecutorial independence.

The intervention of senior leaders Tuesday to reduce the sentencing recommendation in Stone’s criminal case has been widely condemned as undercutting career prosecutors in an effort to protect the president’s friends.