Judge to Stone: Next strike means jail

Post appeared to depict her, firearm’s crosshairs

WASHINGTON — A federal judge issued a broad gag order barring Roger Stone from discussing his criminal case with anyone and gave him a stinging reprimand Thursday over his posting of a photo of the judge with what appeared to be crosshairs of a gun.

She promised to throw the longtime Trump confidant behind bars if he violates the court order in any way.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that it would be “foolhardy” for her not to take any action over the Instagram post and that Stone would “pose a danger” to others in the case if the conditions of his release weren’t modified to include a gag order.

“Roger Stone fully understands the power of words and the power of symbols and there’s nothing ambiguous about crosshairs,” the judge said.

“How hard was it to come up with a photo that didn’t have a crosshairs in the corner?” she quipped at one point.

Stone has pleaded not guilty to charges he lied to Congress, engaged in witness tampering and obstructed a congressional investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The charges stem from conversations he had during the campaign about Wikileaks, the anti-secrecy group that released material stolen from Democratic groups, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

During Thursday’s hearing in federal court in Washington, Stone took the witness stand to try to explain his Instagram post and apologize to the judge, repeatedly telling her he had made an egregious and inexcusable mistake.

“Thank you, but the apology rings quite hollow,” she shot back before instituting the gag order.