A federal judge on Friday placed a gag order on longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, restricting how much he can talk publicly about the case against him relating to the 2016 election. CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin suspects it won’t be easy for Stone, a political operative infamous for his frequent cable news appearances.
“Telling Roger Stone that he can’t talk to the press is equivalent to taking off a limb of Roger Stone,” Toobin, a New Yorker writer and CNN legal analyst told the network Friday. “He lives for public attention.”
Stone appears regularly on Infowars, the radio show run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and also made a point of accepting a handful of TV interviews following his arrest last month.
According to CNN, Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Stone that he and his lawyers “must refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case.”
“The judge is serious about this,” Toobin said. “The judge really wants this case to be tried in the courtroom.”
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office slapped Stone with a seven-count indictment in January, which included lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.