Roger Stone, President Trump's longtime friend and political advisor, formally entered a "not guilty" plea in federal court in Washington, DC today.
Stone was indicted last week and accused of lying about his efforts to gather information about hacked Democratic Party emails at the direction of an unidentified senior Trump campaign official before the election.
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Deborah A. Robinson, Stone’s plea was entered by his lawyer, Robert C. Buschel.
“A plea of not guilty is entered,” Robinson said in response.
As Stone walked into the courthouse Tuesday morning, some onlookers chanted “lock him up!” while others screamed their support for him and the president.
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Prosecutors asked for no change to the terms of Stone’s release. He is limited to travel between South Florida, Washington and New York City, and barred from possessing or applying for a passport.
“We are requesting no change in conditions of release that were imposed by the court in Florida. We would like all the same conditions to apply that were set by the court down there,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Marando told the judge.
The judge agreed with those conditions and scheduled the next court hearing for Feb. 1.
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Since his arrest, Stone all but invited a federal judge to impose a gag order, saying on social media that a directive to mute him is “the fervent wish of the Deep State.”
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Stone’s case will go next before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia for a scheduling hearing.
In other Mueller cases assigned to her, Jackson — a former federal prosecutor, white-collar defense attorney and 2011 appointee of President Barack Obama — has not been reluctant to rein in attorneys and parties whose out-of-court comments she found likely to lead to pretrial publicity that might taint a jury or jeopardize a fair trial.
Jackson issued a gag order days after an attorney for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort gave a statement outside the federal courthouse attacking the special counsel investigation and defending his client to reporters in November 2017.
Trump confidant Roger Stone pleads not guilty to false statements, obstruction charges (WaPo)