A federal judge overseeing Roger J. Stone Jr.’s criminal case issued an order rebuking him on Tuesday for failing to inform her sooner about a new introduction to his book that may violate a gag order because it includes criticism of the current special counsel investigation. After the judge, Amy Berman Jackson of United States District Court in Washington, raised the issue last Friday in a court filing, Mr. Stone asked the judge to consider the new edition of his book an exception to the gag order, which prohibits Mr. Stone from speaking publicly about the legal proceedings against him. Mr. Stone’s defense team has argued that the new introduction, dated January 2019, was written and printed by the publisher before the gag order was put in place on Feb. 21. Mr. Stone said in an Instagram post that the book would be “in stores March 1.”But in Tuesday’s order, Judge Jackson rejected Mr. Stone’s request for her to clarify whether the book falls under the gag order, writing that Mr. Stone had several opportunities to inform the court about the publication of the new edition and that he had failed to do so.

Source: New York Times March 05, 2019 23:26 UTC