Roger “Dirty Trickster” Stone will appear in court Thursday to show cause why he should not have his bail and/or gag order modified or revoked altogether. Stone is on very thin ice here. Judge Amy Berman Jackson has the ability to place him under house arrest or send him to jail. Bets are on as to whether she will extend his gag order to a full one, which would be a modification on the partial one issued Friday, which barred him from speaking within certain parameters near the courthouse, but did not bar him from speaking publicly altogether. That may change Thursday. For his part, Stone says he will apologize to her honor in person. Wow, that’s big of him. I’ll bet the judge is underwhelmed, as are the rest of us. Wall Street Journal:
“I will be present for the hearing as ordered,” Mr. Stone told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “I posted two statements on my Instagram yesterday and they can still be seen.” In those subsequent posts, Mr. Stone said his initial post had been misinterpreted and wasn’t meant as a threat to the judge.
Mr. Stone’s lead attorney, Bruce Rogow, said he didn’t anticipate changes to Mr. Stone’s legal team in light of the controversy. “Mr. Stone immediately apologized in the Notice of Apology filed yesterday and will do so in person on Thursday,” he told the Journal.
Stone’s indictment is key, because it portrays the strongest ties between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks which are known at this time. One of the reasons Robert Mueller wanted Judge Jackson to handle the case is because Jackson is already overseeing a separate Mueller case involving 11 Russian military officers charged with hacking the DNC, and yet another case involving Paul Manafort. Mueller’s team says the cases “arise from common search warrants.” It therefore makes sense that the matters would be consolidated and handled by the same judge. Despite this common sense reasoning, Roger Stone is characterizing the assignment of his case to Judge Jackson as a conspiracy by “hitman” Mueller.
Mr. Stone has appeared in a series of television interviews and other videos since his arrest, criticizing the charges against him as “thin as piss on a rock,” and accusing authorities of using “Gestapo tactics” in his arrest. He also appeared in a three-minute video explaining his choice of attire for his arraignment. Throngs of supporters and protesters surrounded Mr. Stone outside the courthouse after that court appearance in Washington.
I hope she throws the book at him. At the very least, it would be nice to see Stone wearing an ankle bracelet and precluded from social media posts and media appearances.
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[cross-posted to PolitiZoom]