A US judge has warned Donald Trump’s aide Roger Stone not to treat the charges against him like a public relations campaign or book tour.
District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she had already noticed a significant amount of publicity in the case, including television appearances by Stone himself.
“This is a criminal proceeding, not a public relations campaign,” Judge Jackson said. She said that while she understood Stone’s desire to defend himself, he risks tainting a pool of jurors who may ultimately decide his case.
Jackson did not immediately issue an order barring Stone or prosecutors from discussing the case, giving both sides until next week to make their case.
Stone, 66, who was arrested last week in a pre-dawn raid at his Florida home, is the sixth Trump aide charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Roger Stone was warned he may face a gag order in the case (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
He has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of witness tampering, obstruction and false statements.
Wearing a double-breasted pinstripe suit, Stone emerged from the courthouse after Friday’s hearing and struck his two-handed victory pose in homage to former president Richard Nixon.
He was then whisked away into a waiting vehicle amid supporters holding “Roger Stone did nothing wrong” signs.
Stone made the rounds on television last weekend and held a news conference on Thursday at a Washington hotel, where he said he was prepared to tell the truth to Mr Mueller but he had no derogatory information about Mr Trump, his long-time friend.
“I have great affection and remain a strong and loyal supporter of the president,” Stone said.
He also said he was prepared to adhere to a gag order if the judge issued one but that he would probably appeal against it. Among his lawyers is a noted First Amendment attorney who successfully represented the rap group 2 Live Crew in an obscenity court case nearly 30 years ago.
A seven-count indictment accuses Stone of misleading Congress about interactions with friends in which he discussed emails that were stolen from Democratic groups and in the possession of WikiLeaks.
The anti-secrecy website released the communications in the weeks before the presidential election in an effort to harm Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
But the indictment does not accuse Stone or anyone close to the campaign of coordinating directly with WikiLeaks or having advanced knowledge of its plans.
“I am not accused of Russian collusion, I am not accused of collaboration with WikiLeaks, I am not accused of conspiracy,” Stone said on Thursday. “There is no evidence or accusation that I knew in advance about the source or content of the WikiLeaks material.”
In a court filing on Thursday, prosecutors with Mr Mueller’s office said the FBI seized physical devices from his home, apartment and office.
They said multiple hard drives containing several terabytes of information have been recovered, including bank and financial records and the contents of numerous phones and computers.
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