How Roger Stone's backfired testimony proves Judge Amy Berman Jackson is a damn boss
In an epic blog post, writer and law expert @emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler) dissects Thursday's hearing in court for Trump ratfucker and reckless Instagrammer Roger Stone.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson called Stone and his lawyers to her court and demanded that they explain why Stone shouldn't be gagged or jailed on the spot. Roger Stone ended up testifying, and it was a moment for the ages.
Judge Jackson ("ABJ" as she's now nicknamed online) imposed a gag on Stone at the end of Thursday's hearing, in response to his Instagram post of an image of her with crosshairs above her head.
In her post, Marcy breaks down the genius behind each step ABJ took to slice and dice Roger Stone's lies, and reveal his schtick for what it is: toxic speech that has real-world consequences for other human beings.
This @emptywheel on Roger Stone in ABJ's legal crosshairs is PURE GOLD. Don't @ me go READ IT. https://t.co/H9eAOTvv67 pic.twitter.com/85VUeHYIIH
- Xeni Jardin (@xeni) February 22, 2019
Here's a snip from the post:
Here's why, I think, this was allowed to happen. For Stone's entire life, the press has coddled Stone, treating him as a nifty character whose toxic speech doesn't damage society. ABJ was having none of that, and used both Rogow's position as an officer of the court and Stone's insane willingness to take the stand to get them to acknowledge that his speech is toxic, that it does pose a threat to society. Stone presumably wasn't prepared for that because no one has called him on his toxic speech before.
If Stone's lucky, the now much harder to challenge gag will be the only detrimental outcome from yesterday's hearing and he'll avoid perjury charges.
Marcy suggests that it's likely Stone will violate (or may have already violated!) the terms of Thursday's gag order. Just go read the whole thing, and spare yourself the loud cable news commentators. This piece has all you need.
HOW AMY BERMAN JACKSON GOT ROGER STONE TO STEP IN IT AND THEN STEP IN IT AGAIN [https://www.emptywheel.net]