A multi-pronged attack launched by Roger Stone against the case that special counsel Robert Muller brought against him did not pass muster with a federal judge Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied several Stone requests that would have thrown out the case, would have stopped the prosecution against Stone and would have allowed discovery based on what Stone alleged to be a selective prosecution against him.
Stone did secure one narrow victory with Berman Jackson’s order: she partially granted his request to see certain redacted portions of the special counsel’s report.
Her order prohibited the redacted material from being shared outside Stone’s legal team and restricted its use to his case.
Stone has been charged with making false statements to Congress about his attempts to contact Wikileaks and his discussions with the Trump campaign during the 2016 campaign. He is also facing witness tampering charges. He’s pleaded not guilty.
The portions of Mueller’s report that the judge is letting Stone see appear to largely correspond with its discussion of Wikileaks’ dissemination of hacked Democratic emails. Another redacted section being released to Stone is from a section of the report about false statements made by witnesses during the course of the investigation.
Prosecutors previously indicated to the court that sections of Mueller’s report related to Stone’s case were being redacted to keep it compliance with the gag order in the case.
Along with the order, Berman Jackson issued a 56-page opinion siding with the government in numerous attacks Stone brought against its case. She upheld the legality of Mueller’s investigation itself and said that the lack of referral from Congress to the Justice Department seeking prosecution for Stone’s alleged false statements was not grounds for the case’s dismissal.
“Moreover, defendant’s motion fails to mention the fact that the defendant brought attention to the substance of his [House Intelligence Committee] testimony himself, by publicly releasing his written remarks in advance of the hearing and by holding a press conference – while still on Capitol Hill – immediately afterwards,” the judge said. “Indeed, Stone publicly mused that some of the legislators present doubted his credibility: ‘I don’t think that members of the committee buy some of my claims, but they have no evidence to the contrary.'”
While denying Stone’s request for discovery based on selective prosecution, she said he had “failed to make a showing that he has been singled out of a group of similarly situated individuals or that he was charged for an improper reason.”
In a footnote, Berman Jackson pointed to Stone’s own actions for attracting the attention of the Justice Department:
Here is the order and the related opinion:
