Stone fights gag, wants new judge
Lawyers for US President Donald Trump’s longtime confidant Roger Stone have urged a federal judge overseeing his criminal trial not to impose a gag order, citing his constitutional rights to free speech as a writer and political commentator, and have asked to have his case reassigned to a different judge.
US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington, DC last week warned she might cut off public comments by parties and lawyers in Stone’s case, after he went on a week-long media blitz following his indictment and arrest in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Stone, 66, a longtime Republican Party operative and selfdescribed ‘‘dirty trickster’’, has pleaded not guilty to charges of lying about his efforts to gather information about hacked Democratic Party emails that were published by WikiLeaks.
In saying he should be free to comment during his case, Stone’s defence team played down his celebrity and the impact his comments might have on potential jurors.
‘‘While Roger Stone may be familiar to those who closely follow American politics, he is hardly ubiquitous in the larger landscape of popular consciousness’’ and had no Twitter account, his lawyer wrote.
A seven-count indictment alleges that Stone sought information about the emails before the election at the direction of an unidentified senior Trump campaign official. He faces charges of lying, obstruction and witness tampering, including by pressuring another witness to lie or refuse to talk to Congress. Prosecutors in their response noted Jackson’s observation that publicity in the case had been ‘‘fuelled in large part’’ by Stone himself. She has said that continued statements by Stone would create a substantial risk that ‘‘a much larger percent of the jury pool’’ will be ‘‘tainted by pretrial publicity’’.
In a separate filing, Stone’s defence team also asked that the case be reassigned from Jackson, a 2011 appointee of President Barack Obama who is also overseeing the criminal case of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Jackson drew the Stone case because prosecutors designated it as related to the Mueller probe.