drink it in folks for the first time in his life Roger Stone has been ordered by a court of law to shut the fuck up https://t.co/1kTpgZ9vNT
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) February 15, 2019
While the gag order is limited, all parties are still required to abide by a local rule that prohibits making public statements that are likely to have a “materially prejudicial effect”.
— Charlie Gile (@CharlieGileNBC) February 15, 2019
Read the entire filing here: https://t.co/THPK5WrTXT
— Charlie Gile (@CharlieGileNBC) February 15, 2019
Politico‘s take:
… [T]he judge said [Stone] could keep talking about the case with the caveat that she could change her mind and amend her order “if necessary.”
She also lumped Stone in with all the parties in the case and potential witnesses when they are around the D.C. courthouse. In those circumstances, Jackson cautioned that any comments must not “pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case” and cannot be “intended to influence any juror, potential juror, judge, witness or court officer or interfere with the administration of justice.”
Jackson concluded her ruling with a warning that Stone should consider that any excessive public comments may come back to bite him.
“While it is not up to the court to advise the defendant as to whether a succession of public statements would be in his best interest at this time, it notes that one factor that will be considered in the evaluation of any future request for relief based on pretrial publicity will be the extent to which the publicity was engendered by the defendant himself,” Jackson wrote…
To paraphrase comedian Ron White: Stone has the right to remain silent, but does he have the ability?
Related reading, from Jeffrey Toobin for the New Yorker, “Roger Stone’s and Jerome Corsi’s Time in the Barrel”:
… The Stone indictment reads like a political black comedy. It stars a pair of mismatched operatives, Stone and the right-wing author Jerome Corsi, who, without formal connections to the Trump campaign, went on a transatlantic quest for dirt. Mueller’s indictment does not charge Stone with any involvement in the hacking, but accuses him of lying to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about his (and Corsi’s) efforts to pry loose the hacked e-mails from WikiLeaks. Stone is also charged with trying to coerce Randy Credico, a New York media figure and a sometime friend of Stone’s, into joining his efforts to interfere with the work of the House committee. According to the indictment, Stone, in order to prevent Credico from sharing what he knew, sent menacing e-mails to him, including one that said “Prepare to die,” followed by an expletive. He also threatened to steal Credico’s thirteen-year-old therapy dog, a Coton de Tulear named Bianca.
Stone has responded to Mueller’s charges with fevered hyperbole. “Those who think the Mueller investigation will die out with a whimper are dreaming,” he told me on the phone in early February, after his arraignment in federal court in Washington, D.C. “This is a pretext to allow them to remove both Trump and Pence and replace them with Leather Face—I mean, Nancy Pelosi—and then she can appoint Hillary Clinton as V.P. That’s been the agenda from the beginning.” He has vowed to contest the charges at trial. “We’re going to fight them on every piece of evidence, fight them on every witness. We are going to concede nothing.”
Corsi has not been charged, but, in December, he sued Mueller for three hundred and fifty million dollars, saying that the special counsel had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct and illegal surveillance, among other misdeeds. In this civil case, which is pending, Corsi is being represented by Larry Klayman, a Washington lawyer and eccentric best known for filing multiple lawsuits against Bill Clinton’s Administration. Also in December, Corsi published an e-book, “Silent No More: How I Became a Political Prisoner of Mueller’s ‘Witch Hunt,’ ” which recounts his experiences with Mueller’s team and what he calls being “mentally tortured by Mueller’s Deep State prosecutors.”
If Stone and Corsi had not turned up in the Mueller probe, they might have been just a pair of waning satellites in the right-wing solar system. Stone once cut a glamorous figure, with his bodybuilder’s physique and his bespoke suits from London. But, at sixty-six, he is out of shape, he hasn’t played a major role in a campaign in ages, and he scratches out a living by giving speeches, doing a little corporate consulting, and writing for fringe publishers and Web sites. (The house on the canal is rented.) Corsi is seventy-two, and spent most of his life as a marginal academic and a nomadic businessman. In middle age, he began writing books whose conceits—“Swift-boating,” “birtherism”—became shorthand for journalistic irresponsibility. Corsi, who earned a doctorate from Harvard in 1972, stamps “Ph.D.” after his name on the cover of his books as an almost poignant plea for respectability…
A jury will resolve the question of Stone’s guilt, and Mueller will decide whether to charge Corsi, but the geriatric bad boy and the literary charlatan have a wider significance. Stone and Corsi are, respectively, the progenitor and the expositor of the world view of the current President of the United States. Stone’s vulgar narcissism and his insistence on claiming victory at all costs anticipated Trump’s. Stone has Richard Nixon’s face tattooed on his back and Nixon’s values imprinted on his soul; the amoral ruthlessness of the thirty-seventh President passed, through Stone, to the forty-fifth. Corsi tells stories the way Trump does, starting with the desired conclusion and then arranging facts to support it. He cultivated Trump’s obsessions, including genetic purity, as reflected in claims that Obama was born in Kenya rather than in Hawaii; contempt for the two-party system and the political élite, particularly the Bush and Clinton families; and fear and suspicion of the American intelligence agencies and their purported involvement in events such as the Kennedy assassination and the decision to invade Iraq. Through the crucible of the Russia investigation, the fates of these men have become linked, and their cases will help determine the outcome of the epic clash between the special counsel and the President…
The most dramatic—and certainly the weirdest—part of Roger Stone’s trial in the Mueller investigation will probably involve the testimony of Randy Credico: https://t.co/m8cuIciUq1 pic.twitter.com/gV8qE0OZtH
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) February 12, 2019
Obvious Russian Troll
We can only hope to see the amoral son of a bitch rot in jail some day.
rikyrah
Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) Tweeted:
The sorors of @akasorority1908 lined up early, wearing their pink and green. They are the unofficial @KamalaHarris army of supporters in South Carolina #2020inSC
https://t.co/rIE1a0iZgr https://twitter.com/KyungLahCNN/status/1096522829070245888?s=17
rikyrah
Stone won’t be able to shut up.
He is that arrogant
Duane
Does the gag order include sticking a kerosene soaked rag in his mouth and lighting it on fire? That seems appropriate to me.
germy
I still want to know why Stone’s head is shaped that way.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: “Sorors”? Really? Not passing judgement, just wondering. Wouldn’t “sisters” suffice?
Gin & Tonic
And since I am likely to be off-line Mon-Tue, my reminder that Feb 18-20 marks 5 years since the events of the Maidan uprising in Kyiv that led to the massacre of a hundred (more or less) peaceful demonstrators at the hands of Russian-allied forces and to the swift and unscheduled departure of Viktor Yanukovych and crew from Ukraine. When people say that Roger Stone’s erstwhile business partner, Paul Fucking Manafort, has blood on his hands, those are the events they are likely referring to.
Here’s hoping that Stone ends up residing at taxpayer expense as Manafort does. I will have no objection to my tax dollars being spent on that.
germy
“When I was a young single mother attending Mills College, I invited Shirley Chisholm to come to speak on campus and was inspired to later work on her presidential campaign. I threw all my energy and support behind a visionary Black woman committed to making America work for all its people. Shirley set us on a path toward progress, and now Senator Kamala Harris picks up the baton. As just the third African American woman from a major party to run for President, I am so proud to endorse her candidacy as she continues this fight for equality, fairness, and dignity for all Americans. Watching Kamala’s career in the East Bay and San Francisco for 20 years, I’ve witnessed her deep passion for justice and opportunity, and I know she will be a president truly of the people, by the people, and for the people. She will increase working Americans’ incomes, expand health insurance to more Americans, and restore dignity and responsibility to the Oval Office. She is a leader uniquely qualified to bring us together and mobilize a movement of Americans to return power to the people.”
– Congresswoman Barbara Lee
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: I remember when I was still working downtown, one of the black sororities had a big convention at one of the South Loop hotels. A lot of proud sisterhood walking on Michigan Avenue. They’ll be a formidable force if they end up backing Kamala.
NotMax
Cutting short Trolling Stone’s farewell tour.
VeniceRiley
@rikyrah: Dolores Huerta just endorsed kamala Harris. That’s going to sting the Castro brother. Oh, and a big FU middle finger to Susan Sarandon it is!
Aleta
OT — A housemate just started a youtube, Crufts 2018. Excellent cocker spaniels.
I want to read more of the legal talk, but it’s been steady interruptions today so far.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@germy: I’m surprised that this new Kamala endorsement from Barbara Lee isn’t getting more play in the political media. It seems like a big deal…
ThresherK
Ron White also said “You can’t fix stupid”. I have no idea why a blogpost on Roger Stone would reminde me of that.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@VeniceRiley: Wow – that’s another big-deal endorsement. Go team Kamala!
germy
Barbara
@rikyrah: To this day I wonder how pink and green became the unofficial uniform of so many sororities. I love the idea of having these ladies show up wherever Harris appears.
Chyron HR
@rikyrah:
Democrat voters are rigging the primary! REEEEEEE!
SenyorDave
@Obvious Russian Troll: We can only hope to see the amoral son of a bitch rot in jail some day.
I think you should trademark that line. Then , when (hopefully) the members of the Trump crime family and associated hangers-on get indicted someone will have to pay you every time they use that phrase.
germy
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
They ignore important stuff and spend days obsessing over unimportant stuff. I used to think they were stupid. Now I suspect they’re trying to control the narrative.
Barbara
@rikyrah: Her order is a not very thinly veiled promise that if Stone can’t shut his yap she will basically be deaf to his pleas that he can’t get a fair trial because publicity has tainted the jury pool.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
From Politico:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: Steroids.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@germy: Yes, thank FSM we have other sources of info.
germy
Everybody has their own spin:
Roger Moore
@Barbara:
That seems eminently fair. Bitching about pretrial publicity when you’re the one producing it is as good an example of chutzpah as begging for mercy as an orphan after killing your parents.
NotMax
OT.
Damn damn damn. Just realized it is 50% off candy day. Raining too hard to even consider going out.
The Dangerman
@germy:
I read someplace (maybe here) that he has a thing for steroids; no surprise, makes you do weird shit, makes your balls shrivel (whereupon you do weird shit)… sounds like Roger Stone.
piratedan
seeing the Credico statement makes me think that all of this shit is going to come out but it makes me think of that final scene from Three Days Of The Condor when Higgins turns around to Turner and says…. What if they don’t print it, what are you gonna do if they don’t print it….
makes me wonder, what if all of this shit gets revealed and no one does any fucking thing about it? I’d like to think that wouldn’t be the case but so far the GOP sure as fuck doesn’t appear to give a fuck about laws, governance or even the country unless its making sure that rich white people stay in charge ad infinitum
Barbara
@Roger Moore: Right, but I think she wanted something to point to in the record warning him of the possible repercussions of making a constant circus out of the proceedings.
Duane
@NotMax: I watched ” The Little Fugitive” this morning and I have a question. Given your love for movies, approximate age, and the movie’s location, which kid is you?
Sab
@Aleta: Those cockers have tails! How is that working out for them?
MSM can ignore Barbara Lee and Dolores Huerta endorsements all they want. The voters who care are already aware.
JGabriel
@Obvious Russian Troll:
Stone doesn’t just operate with disregard for morality and ethics, he actively looks for, and prefers, ways to do things that are immoral and unethical.
So I think it’s safe, and more accurate, to go ahead and call him immoral, rather than amoral.
NotMax
@Duane
The one left on the cutting room floor.
Less capriciously, of the two? Would have to contemplate that for a while, but probably 70% Lennie and 30% Joey. Of the cast? The kid originally shown collecting bottles for the deposit.
JGabriel
@rikyrah:
I imagine Stone and Roy Cohn probably discussed that at some point:
Mike in DC
An Assange extradition is a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Gelfling 545
@rikyrah: A delightful member of my Tai Chi club is also an active member of that sorority. (she took up Tai Chi in her 80’s). She brought her chapter to the club for a demonstration and I had the pleasure of meeting them. If all the members are as lively as these ladies, Kamala is in good hands.
A Ghost To Most
@JGabriel:
“You HAVE the right to silence, Donkey. What you lack is the will.”
Chris T.
@germy: Acromegaly, presumably from abuse of human growth hormone.
Chris T.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Steroids don’t do that to your face. (They do that to your liver instead.)
Duane
@NotMax: It’s a good movie. Thanks for pointing it out. Oscar nominee for Best Story I noticed.
My Dad had a service station. I’d collect bottles alongside the highway and give them to him. Got paid in candy and pop from the store. I was lucky.
germy
@Chris T.: Maybe he thought human growth hormone would make it… grow.
@The Dangerman: I thought something happened to him in the womb. Fetal alcohol syndrome.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I googled “young roger stone” and the shape’s the same, and with brown hair.
debbie
@NotMax:
Order online at a place like Russell Stover. I used to stock up on chocolate truffle hearts and eggs, just after the holidays.
germy
@debbie: In profile, his head looks like his mom was stricken with the zika virus
Steve in the ATL
Lawyers can and will argue whether his future statements are “substantially” likely to materially prejudice, “likely” to materially prejudice, “materially” prejudice, and “prejudice”.
Billables!
Anonymous
As someone peripheral to the DC BDSM scene in the early 90s, I can tell you that Roger Stone is not unfamiliar with gags, in fact he thinks they’re a ball.
DCrefugee
So why is Jesse Ventura pointing his finger at me?
Mike in NC
Looks like Manafort could be put away for 20 years. Cool.
debbie
@germy:
I was thinking forceps maybe.
chopper
stone will still figure out a way to fuck this up. guaranteed.
NotMax
@debbie
Sadly, the shipping cost would negate any savings.
Free (non-Amazon) shipping to Hawaii? It is to laugh.
Gin & Tonic
@Mike in NC: Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.
ETA: It is crystal clear that he’s angling for a pardon, and I’m afraid he is likely to get one.
Leto
Can they take it back? Why are they such a respected institute when they produce garbage like this? I know I don’t have much money but can I give them $50 and get my Hahr-varhd doctorate?
Jeffro
Who cares about Stone…he knows full well what he did. Frickin’ Wikileaks cutout. Frickin’ betrayer of his country. And for whom?!?!?
(Audience: SHIT! MIDAS!!)
That’s right!
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Steve in the ATL: I know lawyers who can and will argue about whether his future statements are in fact statements, and I sure you do as well.
Mary G
ruemara
@Gin & Tonic: Because that’s what they want to be called.
Under the jail is too good for all of them.
Mary G
OOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO Yes!
And she had to tell CNN, the network the Trumpanzees love to hate!
LOCK HER UP!!!
Fair Economist
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
You’re surprised the political media doesn’t want to talk about an anti-war leftist?
chopper
@The Dangerman:
steroids. crazy upper back, pin head. that’s stone.
ruemara
@Mary G: Wow. That school really needs to hire new teachers.
@piratedan: Let me assuage your fears. There’s enough sedition and money and enough stacked agencies, that government people won’t do shit. It will be up to the citizens to insist they do shit.
Mary G
CNN is on a roll – also found a statement in a new special counsel document that Mueller has evidence of direct communication between Roger Stone and Guccifer 2.0 AKA the Russians. Talk about a Friday news dump. So now we know why the national emergency is an emergency.
trollhattan
@germy:
Roger was cloned from Zippy.
kindness
@germy: Yup. Our media wants to control the memes. Reality doesn’t make them a dime.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
She’s going to do this thing- I can feel it.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Not a surprise, but Gavin Newsom announced on Hayes that he was endorsing Kamala.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Fair Economist: I’m thinking Vox, for example. Lee’s endorsement is certainly relevant information for 2020 prognosticators. Will Vox cover today’s endorsement of Harris from Dolores Huerta either? They haven’t yet…
Most of the things Vox has published about Kamala Harris have repeated negative BS about her. I generally respect their editorial viewpoint, but they are continually missing the boat on Harris. Probably an East Coast thing… (or an Ivy League white male thing)
JR
@germy: The Stone head shape is classic acromegaly
Sign of GH abuse for those without said medical condition
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Baud: Political media:
“He’s a white male, so maybe his endorsement is newsworthy…”
“Naw, all of California is endorsing Harris, so sweep this one under the rug with her endorsements from prominent non-white Californians”
Never mind that California’s primary will control the narrative in the 2020 primary like never before. Pundits ignore Kamala’s dominance of California at their peril.
jl
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Maybe so, but down Chowchilla way is Baud 2020! country.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@jl: So that’s like maybe 1-2 delegates for Baud. Will it be enough?
gwangung
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: BAUD! FUCK YEAH!
germy
https://myhoustonmajic.com/3327106/west-virginia-official-who-called-michelle-obama-an-ape-in-heels-faces-30-years-in-prison-for-fema-fraud/
plato
How very considerate of the judge upholding this treasonous thug’s first amendment rights. More pillows, mr stone?
jl
@plato: Stone will incriminate himself. Judge is biased for prosecution. Look for that in Stone’s appeal of the conviction.
Brickley Paiste
@germy: I think Silverman was saying that Stone used HGH and steroids heavily and that caused bone deformations in the skull.
Apparently in his prime he had a 46 inch chest and a 32 inch waiste.
sdhays
@MomSense: It’s still early, blah, blah, blah, but Kamala Harris is definitely the one to beat. Her entire organization just seems to be several notches above anyone else.
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Yep. I don’t think the pundits have quite grasped how much this upends how the primaries are going to play out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: The best talent will find a way to argue about the word “of.”
gwangung
@sdhays: Kinda like how Clinton’s blowout of the Southern primaries was so key for her victory in 2016?
If she does well in any of the other primaries, it may be that kind of decisive win. And the endorsements from Huertas AND Lee may be extremely significant.
Omnes Omnibus
@plato: At what point after the indictment do you think that defendants should be put on the rack?
rikyrah
ronald alexander (@djchefron) Tweeted:
The story of one man overcoming the burden of his massive white privilege and nepotism to become the president of a private university though never having graduated from college himself
https://t.co/47MMn0EBA0 https://twitter.com/djchefron/status/1096587193529839627?s=17
rikyrah
@sdhays:
Not just California on Super Tuesday, but a series of states with large Black populations.
Harris has to win one of the first three contests. She has to prove that she can win White non-Californian votes.
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
No. They are called Sorors. All the female part of the Divine Nine call themselves Sorors.
sdhays
@gwangung: Yep. Since the winnowing process will have, at best, only started, Harris might very well win a majority with everyone else picking scraps. The difference in the number of votes she’ll be able to clear as opposed to everyone else will be huge.
rikyrah
@Barbara:
It’s the colors of the AKA’s.
The Deltas are crimson and creme.
The Zetas are royal blue and white
Sigma Gamma Rho -royal blue and gold
sdhays
@rikyrah: If she doesn’t win one of the first three contests, she’s probably pretty seriously damaged, but unless the damage really makes her crater in California she would still be a force to be reckoned with.
But her early organization is really what impresses me. She just seems a few steps ahead of everyone else, even Warren who announced first. Obviously it’s early, but if I was a campaign strategist for any of the other candidates, I would be obsessing over how to blunt Harris’ campaign.
gwangung
@rikyrah: The power of her sorority shouldn’t underestimated. It’s not quite as much as the frats for white men, but the power of sisterhood there ought to be reckoned with.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
I’m still giggling at the white dudes who thought they could sow division among African-Americans by trying to claim that Harris isn’t Black enough because she’s mixed race. Really, guys? You think that African-Americans will agree with you that an AKA who went to a HBCU isn’t Black enough? ?
I mean, those kinds of claims worked so well at getting Black folks to not vote for Obama, right? ???
gwangung
@Mnemosyne: Peak white dudeness. (Plus most African Americans also know that most of the community has white people as ancestors…which a lot of white dudes don’t).
Brickley Paiste
It is just so great that people are actually talking about how members of a particular sorority are going to vote.
This is peak democracy.
Brickley Paiste
@germy:
Hard to believe but true, right?
Omnes Omnibus
@gwangung: I think you have that comparison completely backwards. I was in a fraternity in college. Years later, quite a few of my fraternity brothers are still people I consider to be friends. Member of that fraternity from other times and other schools have no hold on me. Paul Ryan can die in a fire for all that I care even though he is a member of my national fraternity. AA Greek organizations seem to have a far larger and more life-long commitment. For Harris, AKA will provide a ready-made ground game.
Brickley Paiste
@sdhays:
Nah – she is going to have a ground game that is amazeballs. All of the people who hit their stride in the last month of the Clinton campaign are on board and just starting to limber up.
When she was doing here announement – there were teams of volunteers and I mean like 6 or 7 two women teams – handing out flyers and maps to people in Oakland, Richmond, SF, Daly City, Fremont, San Jose at transit stops in the morning. Just cool competent professional organizers.
Mnemosyne
@Brickley Paiste:
Good thing fraternities like Skull and Bones never had any influence on who was able to run for president. That would have been terrible.
sdhays
@Brickley Paiste: You have to admit, it’s strongly rooted in American political history.
gwangung
@Omnes Omnibus: You’re obviously the expert here. Looking in from the outside, I have always gotten the impression that the Greek system often offered networking opportunities that was superior to what non-Greeks have.
But the black Greeks definitely seem cohesive, particular for a member who’s going to (or seemingly on the verge of) do something historic.
Mnemosyne
@Brickley Paiste:
Pro tip: I’ll bet you that most of those cool, competent Black women were AKAs in college. And if they weren’t AKAs, they were members of one of the other Black sororities.
You really have no idea what you’re about to be hit with, do you? You have no understanding that Black fraternities and sororities are very, very different in their aims and membership than white fraternities and sororities are.
Mnemosyne
@gwangung:
@Omnes Omnibus:
Omnes is right — Black fraternities and sororities are far stronger and more cohesive than most non-Black people realize, and they still have a huge amount of organizing power long after graduation. They’re more similar to honor societies than the party-hearty ones that white kids join in college. I’m not at all surprised that they’re focusing their efforts on Harris.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: this is exactly right.
frosty
@Mnemosyne: My only knowledge is from seeing AKA license plates in Baltimore and realizing that there’s something going on here.
Ruckus
@piratedan:
I believe that this has come back to bite most everyone involved on the rich side of the aisle at points in history. I’m thinking of the French a while back as the most obvious case. Given the type of government we are supposed to have that is far less likely to happen but you push enough people long and hard enough……..
plato
19.5 to 24.5 of what? Days? Weeks? Months? Years?
Fucking 3rd rate 4th estate.
West of the Rockies
I am very enthusiastic about Kamala Harris. I voted for her for AG and Senate and am leaning her way for president. She is smart, poised, energetic, and capable of destroying Trump. Hillary was all of those things, too, but Trump’s mind has deteriorated rapidly. I can’t image he will be able to debate effectively at 75.
And now, totally OT, I am getting worn down by so much darkness. I want Trump and his rabid horde to face consequences. Turning to TV for distracting entertainment is not working. I don’t watch a lot of television, but the shows I do watch just seem heavy. The Passage, Blacklist… I no longer dig Grace and Frankie. Frankie reminds me too much of my narcissistic ex-MIL.
Mike in NC
@plato: Hours!
joel hanes
Except in unusual cases, the size and shape of a person’s skull is pretty much a done deal shortly after puberty.
Only the cartilage parts — the nose and the ears — continue to grow, slowly.
Gemina13
@NotMax: This wins the Internet for the year.
cwmoss
@The Dangerman: Also, I read somewhere (here, in comments from ALS) that human growth hormone can make someone’s head look fucked up like Stone’s does.