Stone attorneys tell judge book written before gag order

WASHINGTON — Attorneys for Roger Stone told a federal judge Monday that it “did not occur” to them to notify her about the publication of a book that appears to violate a gag order on the Republican operative and longtime friend of President Donald Trump, because they said the work appeared two days before the gag order was issued.

Stone attacks special counsel Robert Mueller as “crooked” and accuses “Deep State liberals” of seeking to silence him in an updated introduction to his book about Trump’s 2016 campaign, retitled The Myth of Russian Collusion.

Stone was put under a gag order Feb. 21 by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, and Stone attorneys led by Bruce Rogow told the Washington-based judge that “not a single word of the book was created” after that date.

Rogow urged Jackson not to find Stone in violation, because he could not have known about prohibitions not yet in place.

The updated version was sent to hundreds of retailers in January for rerelease and published online Feb. 19, his lawyers said in a court filing unsealed Monday. Although a social media posting on a Stone account said the publication date was coming March 1, and despite a filing from his attorneys Friday about an “imminent” book release, the actual publication date was Feb. 19, his lawyers said Monday.

Stone, 66, is accused of lying to Congress and obstructing justice to cover up his efforts to gather information concerning hacked Democratic Party emails during the 2016 presidential campaign. He has pleaded innocent.

Jackson had ordered Stone’s defense attorneys to explain why they did not mention a book whose existence, the judge noted, “was known to the defendant.”

Jackson said Stone’s attorneys could have told the court about the book at several points in February: in a Feb. 8 court filing opposing the gag order, after Jackson on Feb. 19 called Stone to court within a week to explain why his Instagram account posted an image that court security officials said appeared to place a gun-sight cross hairs next to a photo of Jackson’s face or at the Feb. 21 hearing on the gag order to limit prejudicial pretrial publicity in the case.

Stone announced via Instagram on Jan. 16 that he would be publishing a book titled The Myth of Russian Collusion: The Inside Story of How Donald Trump Really Won. Publishers received the draft on Jan. 14, and edits were approved the following day, his attorney said.

Stone said Feb. 15 on Instagram that the book would be published March 1, accompanying the post with hashtags such as #noconspiracy and #norussiancollusion. Under the gag order, Stone can raise money for his defense and speak on other matters.