Roger Stone’s recent social media posts challenging the criminal charges he’s fighting put him in violation of a court-imposed gag order and may require him to be jailed, federal prosecutors argued in a new motion on Thursday.
The U.S. attorney from Washington, D.C., who is handling the case originally brought by special counsel Robert Mueller against the longtime Donald Trump adviser, took issue with several of Stone’s posts on Instagram, including several this week that question why he’s not getting more media coverage about his attorneys’ recent legal filings.
Those posts, the prosecutors argue, run counter to the gag order that U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued against Stone in February that restricted him from making any public comments about his case involving false statements to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering.
“At best, Stone’s efforts could create the misimpression that this case is about issues that are not charged in the Indictment, and risk the trial ‘devolv[ing] into a circus,’” the prosecutors said, citing Jackson’s own words. “But worse, it could confuse prospective jurors or color how they later view the actually-relevant evidence and understand the Court’s instructions about that evidence.”
Prosecutors asked Jackson to schedule a new court hearing “to show cause why the defendant’s conditions of release should not be modified.”
At issue are posts Stone started making Tuesday, including a message asking why several major news organizations didn’t cover a recent filing his lawyers made arguing that the government did not independently verify that Russian operatives hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016. Stone posted several more articles touting his attorneys’ work, tagging one, “Funny, No @nytimes or @washingtonpost coverage of this development.”
Also included in the government’s filing is Stone’s comment, written on Instagram, about a May report in POLITICO describing Jackson’s order to see any unredacted portions of the Mueller report related to his case. “The Judge has ruled but @Politico gets most of the story wrong because they are biased elitist snot-nosed fake news shitheads who’s specialty is distortion by omitting key facts to create a false narrative. #rogerstonedidnothingwrong #rogerstone #fakenews,” Stone’s post said.
Prosecutors filed a separate document on Thursday refuting Stone’s claims that the government didn’t independently confirm that Russia was behind the DNC hack.
Stone’s attorney, Bruce Rogow, took issue with the prosecutors’ filing.
“We are disappointed in, and surprised by, the government’s unrealized fears,” he said. “Mr Stone has limited his comments to matters widely reported in the news or public court filings. The government’s motion is ill advised and an astonishing overreaction.”
Stone’s potential gag order violation may not sit well with Jackson, who in February restricted his public speech after he posted a photo of her on social media with what looked like gun-sight cross hairs.
The longtime GOP operative was already under a partial gag order that allowed him to continue discussing his case so long as he wasn’t in or near the D.C. courthouse. But the photo prompted Jackson to broaden the order to include a ban on discussing anything related to Mueller or the Russia investigation.
Stone apologized during that hearing, telling Jackson: “I let you down. I let myself down. I let my family down. I let my attorneys down. I can only say I’m sorry. It was a momentary lapse in judgment. Perhaps I talk too much.”
But Jackson wasn’t satisfied. “No, Mr. Stone, I’m not giving you another chance,” she said. “I have serious doubts about whether you’ve learned any lesson at all. It is my job to make sure this trial does not devolve into a circus.”
While Stone has since been prohibited from commenting publicly on the case, that hasn’t stopped him from posting news stories on his Instagram page that could be relevant to his upcoming trial, which is scheduled to begin Nov. 5 in Washington.
Under the current restrictions, Stone is still allowed to raise money for his legal defense fund and explain in simple terms that he has pleaded not guilty — he just can’t comment on the Russia investigation. His Instagram posts urge his followers to donate to his defense fund, a plea that is often coupled with complaints about the way his case is being handled and the alleged misdeeds of the FBI, the media and Obama-era national security officials.
One image posted by Stone that prosecutors brought to the court’s attention called former CIA Director John Brennan a “psycho who must be charged, tried, convicted . . . . and hung for treason.”
Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, has presided over several of the Mueller-related cases and last year imposed gag orders on Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and their attorneys.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/20/roger-stone-gag-order-1374590
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Natasha Bertrand
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