U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson asked special counsel Robert Mueller to provide specific information about when and how he announced publicly the grand jury indictment of Roger Stone last month.
Her order Friday came in a dispute raised by Stone alleging Mueller acted inappropriately in the way he released the indictment to the press the morning of Stone’s Jan. 24 arrest. Stone had pushed the conspiracy theory that CNN, which recorded footage of the predawn arrest, was tipped off that the charges were coming — something CNN and Mueller have both denied.
The dispute, however, has come down to the narrower question of whether Mueller violated the order that originally put the under seal by blasting a link to the indictment after Stone was arrested but before the indictment had been unsealed on the court’s docket.
The judge had previously asked for more information from Mueller’s office in an order a week ago, but was apparently dissatisfied with the Mueller’s team’s response. “The information provided still leaves the Court’s particular question unanswered,” she noted in her late Friday follow-up order.
Berman Jackson in her latest order told Mueller to file by Tuesday a notice indicating precisely when Stone was arrested, when the announcement and indictment was posted to the special counsel website, and when it sent the email with that link, as well as to whom that email was sent. She also asked that he submit “any record that memorializes”the timing of those events.
