WASHINGTON (CN) - Imposing a social-media blackout on the president’s longtime supporter, a federal judge opted to deal with Roger Stone’s gag-order defiance Tuesday as she would a disobedient middle schooler.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had already expanded what had been a more limited order in February, after Stone posted on Instagram a picture of Judge Jackson with crosshairs of a gun beside her head.
“I can tell you that, given what went into that order, you have a long row to hoe,” Jackson said in court this morning as counsel for Stone attempted to defend his conduct.
Prosecutors say the February gag did not do the trick, with Stone continuing to thrash in the public eye about his case or the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Flagging several Instagram posts that shared content from other parties and tagged major news outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, prosecutors accused Stone of deliberately working to generate press coverage.
Jackson agreed, noting that Stone knows full well the power and purpose of social media.
“Mr. Stone was not content to leave those posts out there unread, unliked,” Jackson said.
“Maybe his lawyers don’t understand it, but he does,” Jackson continued, emphasizing that platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are intended to disseminate content to a wider audience.
In court this morning where Stone appeared in a blue seersucker suit, the judge ran through instances of such communications from the last three months.
One example involved Stone texting a Buzzfeed reporter to dispute what Michael Cohen said about him in testimony to Congress. He also posted a photo to Instagram of former CIA Director John Brennan with the caption, “this psycho must be charged.”
After conferring with Stone about each example, defense attorney Bruce Rogow held firm that Stone was not making public statements on the case but merely commenting on other parties’ statements.
“Isn’t the point of those to try to disseminate his point of view that ‘my indictment is invalid because the whole Russian hacking was a hoax,’” Jackson asked.
Answering no, Rogow said the government had exaggerated its concern that Stone risked prejudicing a future jury with his posts.
“Not one of these are the kind of thing that have any reasonable basis for affecting a fair trial,” the lawyer said.
Rogow urged Jackson to lift the gag order, saying it dangerously restricts Stone’s right to freedom of expression.
