Judge Orders Social-Media Silence for Roger Stone

• 07.17.2019, 12:00
•  America,  World

112 Украина

Former Trump advisor and confidant Roger Stone isn’t going to jail after violating his gag order. Instead, a judge on Tuesday condemned him to perhaps a far worse fate: Stone has been banned from posting on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, according to The Wall Street Journal, the verge reports.

In February, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson imposed a gag order on Stone, barring him from speaking about his ongoing legal case or the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump campaign. This gag order came shortly after Stone went on a speaking tour across networks like CNN and Fox News after he was indicted by the special counsel.

But only a week after being gagged, Stone posted a photo of Jackson on Instagram with an image of crosshairs near her head. Stone said that the image was part of a logo pictured in the background of the image, and he deleted the post shortly after it was published, recropping it so the target wasn’t visible. Following the crosshairs incident, Jackson prohibited Stone from posting on social media unless he was asking for his followers to support his legal defense fund or proclaim his innocence, but now, he can no longer post at all.

Stone has long been in trouble for his posts that have veered into vile, homophobic, and racist language. In October 2017, he was suspended from Twitter after targeting CNN personalities Don Lemon and Ana Navarro calling them “covksucker[s]” and “dumbfuck[s].” After being kicked off of Twitter, Stone has spent most of his time posting bizarre portraits and links to merchandise on Facebook properties where he has yet to be banned by the platforms themselves.

If Stone continues to post on social media after today, he could be found in contempt of court and face jail time.