Bon voyage, Roger Stone!
In what amounts to a reminder of just how slowly the wheels of justice can turn, Roger Stone was finally hauled into court today to answer for inappropriate remarks he made months ago on Instagram and elsewhere, which appeared to violate his gag order. Now it’s safe to say that we won’t be hearing from Stone any more going forward – or if we do, it’ll be the last thing we hear from him.
After Roger Stone made a social media post with crosshairs over the head of Judge Amy Berman Jackson, she warned him not to comment on his criminal case going forward. He went on to violate that by insisting that the case was some kind of conspiracy against him, and so today the Judge banned Stone from any further social media posts of any kind between now and the end of his trial.
This means that Roger Stone is, finally, down to his last chance. If he posts anything on Instagram going forward (he’s already been banned from most other major social media platforms for violating their rules), his bail will be revoked and he’ll rot in jail through the end of his trial. Some Stone apologists have argued that the judge is violating Stone’s free speech rights. But considering that Stone is already in violation of his bail, he should consider himself lucky that it wasn’t revoked outright today.
Considering the slam dunk nature of some of the criminal charges against Roger Stone, it’s fair to expect that he’ll be convicted on at least some of the charges. Considering his age, the odds are good that he’ll never get out of prison. And because some of his antics were in New York, he’ll likely be hit with state charges even if Donald Trump tries to pardon him on federal charges. This means Stone is toast once his trial ends – and now we won’t have to hear from him between now and the end of his trial.
