Robert Mueller notifies judge that Roger Stone shared Instagram image

Authored by cnbc.com and submitted by mvanigan

At the same Feb. 21 hearing, the judge warned him: "Today, I gave you a second chance. This is not baseball, you don't get a third chance."

If Jackson finds that Stone, who is currently free on a $250,000 signature bond, violated that order, she could have him jailed without bail pending his trial on charges of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing justice.

Stone on Sunday deleted the "Who framed Roger Stone" image from a series of other rotating images on his Instagram story shortly after CNBC sent an email to his lawyer asking about it.

The other images suggested that people donate to Stone's legal defense fund, with one saying, "I am committed to proving my innocence. But I need your help," and another saying, "I've always had Trump's back. Will you have mine?"

"We note for the Court that according to public reporting, on March 3, 2019, the defendant's Instagram account shared an image with the title 'who framed Roger Stone.' A copy of the image is submitted under seal as Exhibit C," Mueller said in the court filing in federal court in Washington, D.C.

CNBC's story on the image is referenced in a footnote in that filing.

Stone posted the "Framed" Instagram image two days after Jackson ordered his defense lawyers to explain why they did not tell her about the planned publication of a book by Stone that could violate her gag order. The book is entitled "The Myth of Russian Collusion: The Inside Story of How Trump Really Won."

Jackson's gag order prohibits Stone from "making statements to the media or in public settings about the Special Counsel's investigation or this case or any of the participants in the investigation or the case."

The gag covers "posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other form of social media," as well as other forms of communication.

In his new book, The Washington Post reported Monday, Stone writes: "I now find myself on Crooked Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's hit list because I have advised Donald Trump for the past forty years. I am being targeted not because I committed a crime, but because the Deep State liberals want to silence me and pressure me to testify against my good friend."

Mueller's spokesman, who had declined to comment to CNBC on Stone's post Sunday, declined to comment Monday on the special counsel's filing Monday.

Stone's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier Monday, Stone's attorneys told Jackson in a filing that they believed his new book, which has an updated introduction discussing his case, should be allowed to be published because it was written and edited before the judge issued her gag order.

His attorneys write that Stone's publication of the book "should not be viewed as contravening the Court's prohibitions because these prohibitions were not extant and could not have been known prior to February 21, 2019."

But Mueller's filing afterward noted that, "A preview of the defendant's book, including the updated Introduction referenced in the defendant's Motion to Clarify, is currently publicly available on Amazon.com and Google Books."

Stone was arrested in January. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Mueller claims Stone lied to Congress about his alleged effort to get the document collection group WikiLeaks to release emails hacked by Russian agents from Democrats, including Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Stone is alleged to have been in contact with top-ranking Trump campaign officials about efforts to leak damaging information about Clinton.

shmokedshalmon on March 4th, 2019 at 22:06 UTC »

So, what happens if the judge finds that Stone violated the gag order? Is he held in contempt?

mvanigan on March 4th, 2019 at 22:03 UTC »

The Filing

In addition, we note for the Court that according to public reporting, on March 3, 2019, the defendant’s Instagram account shared an image with the title “who framed Roger Stone.” A copy of the image is submitted under seal as Exhibit C

LOL Roger. Prison calls you home.

Edit: It was just a filing, not an order.

Edit 2: As mentioned below, this is in addition to the book issue potentially violating the gag order so Roger will be facing an extremely pissed off Judge Jackson at the next hearing.

rusticgorilla on March 4th, 2019 at 22:03 UTC »

This is on top of the upcoming book Roger Stone didn't tell the judge about - so at least 2 violations of the gag order in a few days!

On Friday, the judge discovered Stone is about to release a book that could include details of the legal cases he’s been involved in, violating the gag order. She demanded to know why he didn’t inform the court of the book and gave his lawyers until Monday (today) to respond.

Then, on Sunday, Stone posted an image to Instagram suggesting he was “framed” by Mueller, which again is against the gag order. He deleted the post hours after the press contacted him for comment.

Source

Edit: Stone's explanation

Stones legal team, in a court filing Monday afternoon, said that it “did not occur to counsel” at the hearing — or when submitting a court filing on Feb. 8 addressing the potential for a gag order — that they should then flag for the judge the issue of the re-release of the book, which was retitled “The Myth of Russian Collusion.”

We don't know the judge's response yet.