Federal district court Judge Amy Berman Jackson couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, admitted in open court that a volunteer had given him two or three photos of the judge to choose from, and for an Instagram post he picked the one that appeared to show the crosshairs of a rifle scope behind Jackson’s head.
“You had a choice?” Jackson asked, incredulous after Stone’s admission.
Roger Stone as he left federal court in Washington on Feb. 1. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP
Attorneys for Roger Stone withheld and misrepresented plans for his new book criticizing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in violation of a gag order in his case, a federal judge found Tuesday, warning that any “costs or consequences” that result are solely his responsibility.
The new order by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington does not spell out consequences but bodes ill for the longtime friend of President Trump and Republican operative, who asked the court for leeway late Friday regarding the “imminent release” of a new version of his book about Trump’s 2016 campaign, retitled “The Myth of Russian Collusion.”
Jackson found that, in fact, Stone deliberately waited until after publication to disclose plans that had been underway for weeks, suggesting his defense was using her docket to gin up publicity for the book.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team alerted Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Monday that Roger Stone posted an image on Instagram that might have violated his gag order over the weekend.
The post in question was a picture of Stone under the words: “Who framed Roger Stone?” It also linked to a page for donors to contribute to the fund for Stone’s legal defense.
Stone is currently facing charges for lying to Congress and obstructing justice as a part of Mueller’s Russia investigation. After he posted a photo of Judge Jackson next to an image of crosshairs with a conspiratorial caption about the case against him, she issued a gag order against him, barring him from speaking publicly about his case, citing concerns about public safety.
Conservative author Jerome Corsi, with his lawyer Larry Klayman, right, speaks in Washington on Jan. 3. Credit: Paul Handley, AFP, Getty Images
Conservative author Jerome Corsi on Monday apologized for writing an article in which he falsely alleged that Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer who was killed in 2016, and Aaron Rich, his brother, had leaked thousands of emails to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks.
Corsi said in a statement that the allegations he made in his article, which was posted on the Infowars website last March, “were not based upon any independent factual knowledge” about the Rich brothers.
Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser for President Trump, leaves federal court in Washington on Feb. 1. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP
Republican operative and longtime Trump friend Roger Stone faced fresh legal trouble Friday after a federal judge ordered his attorneys to explain why they failed to tell her before now about the imminent publication of a book that could violate his gag order by potentially criticizing the judge or prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
The order by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia late Friday came barely eight days after Jackson barred Stone from speaking publicly about his case, prompted by a photo posted on Stone’s Instagram account that placed a crosshairs next to a photo of Jackson’s head.
Stone apologized for abusing the court’s trust, asking for a second chance. Jackson said in imposing the gag order Feb. 21 that it would be “foolhardy” to wait for him to transgress again, that she had “serious doubts whether you’ve learned any lesson at all,” and warned she would order him to jail for future violations.
WASHINGTON — Questioned in court last week about his recent Instagram post featuring a photo of the judge presiding over his case with what resembled a crosshairs symbol, Roger Stone said under oath that a “volunteer” found the image. He insisted he couldn’t recall who exactly, though, and struggled to identify the five or six people he said were serving as his volunteers at the time.
The names he offered after being pressed by the prosecutor underscored Stone’s ties to the Proud Boys, a far-right, men-only extremist group that describes its members as “Western chauvinist.” The four men identified by Stone are all active on social media, and several continued to post about Stone’s case after US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson imposed a strict gag order Thursday — an order that limits not only what Stone can say in public and online, but what his surrogates and volunteers can say on his behalf.
Stone identified Enrique Tarrio, Tyler Whyte, Jacob Engels, and Rey Perez as his volunteers. Tarrio is chair of the Proud Boys and last week sat behind President Donald Trump during a speech in Miami wearing a T-shirt that said “Roger Stone Did Nothing Wrong!” Whyte leads a Proud Boys chapter in Florida. Engels has been involved in Proud Boys activities, but says he’s a journalist embedded with the group, not a member. Perez identified himself on Facebook as a member of the Proud Boys and was at Stone’s house in Florida to tape a podcast over cigars and baked ziti just before before the Instagram post imbroglio.
During a heated hearing on Thursday, the federal judge presiding over Roger Stone’s criminal case banned the longtime Trump associate from saying anything publicly about his case.
The ruling, harsher than the limited gag order U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued last week, comes after Stone posted an inflammatory photo of the judge on his Instagram account over the weekend.
Before Jackson ruled from the bench, Stone took the stand to beg for forgiveness.
The FBI indictment of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone contains the unsurprising revelation that Stone threatened an associate, and his pet dog, to prevent him from cooperating with authorities. He expressed his threat using the familiar trope of the Mafia movie. “On multiple occasions,” the special counsel reports, Stone told his associate (reportedly Randy Credico) to “do a ‘Frank Pentangeli,’” a reference to a Godfather: Part II capo who was prepared to inform on the boss before Congress, before recanting his testimony (and ultimately committing suicide to protect his family from reprisal.)
The Russia scandal has provided us with relatively few Russia cultural references, but a proliferation of mafia references. The fact that Stone expressed himself this way is not mere color, nor is organized crime even a metaphor for the mindset and Trump and his inner circle. It is actually a reasonably literal description of the Trump organization.
In the fall of 2017, a source close to the administration warned, “this investigation is a classic Gambino-style roll-up. You have to anticipate this roll-up will reach everyone in this administration.” This turned out to be one of the most prescient descriptions of what was to come. A roll-up of an organized crime family generally starts at the bottom, and uses evidence against lower-ranking figures to compel testimony against their superiors, until it ultimately reaches the top of the organization. Mueller has followed this pattern, beginning with indictments against low-level characters like George Papadopoulos and Russian hackers, and working its way up to the inner circle of the campaign and, quite likely, the boss himself.
A federal judge has demanded that Roger Stone explain why the conditions of his release and freedom to talk about the charges against him should not be changed after he posted an Instagram photo of that judge that included her name, a close-up of her face and what appeared to be the crosshairs of a gun sight near her head.
Stone deleted the initial picture soon afterward, then reposted it without the crosshairs before deleting that post, as well.
He later said he did not mean to threaten the judge overseeing his criminal case. In a letter to Judge Amy Berman Jackson, he apologized and called the picture “improper.”
Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump who has been charged as a part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, posted a threatening Instagram picture Monday depicting the judge overseeing his case next to an image of crosshairs.
“Through legal trickery Deep State hitman Robert Mueller has guaranteed that my upcoming show trial is before Judge Amy Berman Jackson , an Obama appointed Judge who dismissed the Benghazi charges again Hillary Clinton and incarcerated Paul Manafort prior to his conviction for any crime,” Stone said in text next to the image. “Help mef ight for my life,” he added.
The post was removed about an hour after it went up. A few minutes later, Stone posted the image again, but he cropped the crosshairs out.
Federal district court Judge Amy Berman Jackson couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
WASHINGTON — Questioned in court last week about his recent Instagram post featuring a 
