If longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone feels the need to pontificate about his treatment at the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller, he’s going to have to find some place other than the courthouse steps belonging to the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.
Fearful that Stone’s trial could quickly turn into a media circus, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a court order on Friday barring both Stone and Mueller from making public statements in and around the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse.
In addition, both parties are prohibited from “making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to the case.”
Legal muzzle
Stone was arrested in a high-profile FBI raid last month and charged with lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the special counsel’s Russia investigation. The flamboyant political celebrity wasted no time ridiculing his arrest and the prosecution’s case against him, appearing outside the courthouse for a press conference just moments after he was released from jail on a signature bond.
“I will plead not guilty to these charges,” a defiant Stone announced. “I will defeat them in court. I believe this was a politically motivated investigation. I am troubled by the political motivations of the prosecutors.”
Stone, who worked briefly on former President Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign, concluded the presser with a flourish, raising two outstretched arms in a trademark Nixon victory salute.
If that wasn’t enough to raise the blood pressure of any presiding judge in a case of national importance, Stone followed up his courthouse presser with a marathon of media appearances, where he floated conspiracy theories about his indictment, walked reporters through his home to recount the FBI raid that resulted in his arrest, and even offered fashion tips for criminal defendants.
Enough is enough
Judge Jackson, of course, wasn’t having it, and during a Feb. 1 hearing she told the 66-year-old defendant that she did not want him treating his trial like a “book tour.” Worried that the “considerable publicity” that Stone’s “extra-judicial statements” attracted could “taint” the jury pool, Jackson warned that she was considering issuing a gag order to silence him.
Responding to the warning, Stone’s legal team pleaded for Jackson to reconsider the gag order, arguing that Stone had a right to speak openly about his legal ordeal as an author and a political commentator.
Fordham law professor Jed Shugerman couldn’t help but note that for Stone, avoiding the national spotlight “will be cruel and unusual punishment.”
Ultimately, Jackson stopped short of completely censoring the defendant, although she wants “to maintain the dignity and seriousness of the courthouse and these proceedings.”
But the district judge did have one final piece of advice for Stone in her four-page order dealing with the media:
Finally, while it is not up to the Court to advise the defendant as to whether a succession of public statements would be in his best interest at this time, it notes that one factor that will be considered in the evaluation of any future request for relief based on pretrial publicity will be the extent to which the publicity was engendered by the defendant himself.
No comments: