New York Daily News

Stone now in judge’s crosshairs

- BY CLAYTON GUSE AND CHRIS SOMMERFELD­T

Roger Stone may get slammed for his ’gram.

A federal judge warned Tuesday she may revoke the embattled Trump confidant’s release on bond and send him to jail over a toxic Instagram post he made about her.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered Stone to appear in her Washington courtThurs­day and “show cause” for how a since-deleted photo he put up of her didn’t violate a gag order she issued in his criminal case.

If Stone fails to give a decent explanatio­n, Jackson warned, his “conditions of release” could be “modified or revoked.”

Stone, 66, is free on $250,000 bond. If he fails to persuade Jackson, Stone may have to wait for his trial behind bars.

Reached by the Daily News, Stone uncharacte­ristically declined to comment other than saying he’ll “be present for the hearing as ordered.”

Stone (photo) — who has been indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigat­ion over his 2016 contacts with WikiLeaks — posted a picture Monday of Jackson’s face next to what appeared to be a crosshairs symbol. When reporters called about it, the longtime friend and adviser to President Trump deleted the photo and claimed he didn’t notice the rifle scope when he pulled the picture from the internet.

Minutes later, the self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” of politics posted another version of the photo that cropped out the crosshairs. He still included a caption that derided Jackson as an “Obama appointed” partisan and shill for Mueller.

Not long after, he deleted that photo as well and issued a formal “notice of apology” to Jackson, in which he said he was “humbly” sorry for the social media posts.

Stone has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, which include lying to Congress, obstructio­n of justice and witness tampering.

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