Roger Stone just got some bad news from the judge
Roger Stone seems not to get the clue of what is appropriate. As Palmer Report reported earlier, Roger Stone took it upon himself to post a picture of his trial judge with crosshairs next to her head, then took it down and claimed he meant no harm.
On Monday evening, Stone, under cover of a “Notice of Apology” by his lawyers, filed an apology with the court. As anyone could tell Stone, including what his lawyers surely did yesterday, that was not enough.On Tuesday morning, Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a minute order as to Roger J. Stone, Jr., stating:
“Defendant is ORDERED to show cause at a hearing to be held on Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. as to why the media contact order entered in this case and/or his conditions of release should not be modified or revoked in light of the posts on his Instagram account on or about February 18, 2019.”
Posting items such as Roger Stone did is not wise, especially when it implies a potential threat against a sitting federal judge. Stone potentially faces being jailed from now until his trial ends, for his conduct on Instagram. Unless Stone can come up with some credible statements about how the Instagram post did not violate the prior court orders, Stone’s days as a free man appear to be ending this week. It does not appear that his apologies, like the Outkast lyrics, “I’m sorry [Judge] Jackson…I apologize a trillion times,” are not going to win him any mercy. A very bad, stupid move by Stone.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.