Gag order issued in Roger Stone trial
A gag order for attorneys and witnesses has been issued in the case of Roger Stone by a federal judge in Washington DC.
Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Donald Trump, was indicted last month on charges of lying to investigators, obstructing justice and witness tampering. He denies wrongdoing.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s order does not generally apply to Stone himself. But the judge gave the veteran political operative a courtly warning to curb his excesses in the media.
While it was not up to her “to advise the defendant as to whether a succession of public statements would be in his best interest,” Jackson wrote, he should not complain about the effects of pre-trial publicity if he courts the publicity himself.
The gag order also bars Stone and anyone else involved in the case from making comments to the public and media around the courthouse before or after hearings. Jackson said the order was needed to protect Stone’s right to a fair trial.
“The court has particular concerns about the potential impact of public statements made in the District of Columbia, directed at individuals who may be members of the venire from which the jury will be drawn,” Jackson wrote.
“And, in light of the size and vociferousness of the crowds that have already been attracted to these proceedings, and the risk that public pronouncements by the participants may inflame those gatherings, the court is persuaded that a narrowly tailored order governing the conduct of participants in the matter while they are at the courthouse is necessary to advance the court’s legitimate interest in maintaining the order and decorum that is essential to court proceedings and the fair administration of justice.”
Sarah Sanders interviewed by Special Counsel
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to CNN.
“The President urged me, like he has everyone in the administration, to fully cooperate with the special counsel. I was happy to voluntarily sit down with them,” Sanders told the network in an interview.
Mueller has also interviewed former chief of staff John Kelly, former White House communications director Hope Hicks and former press secretary Sean Spicer.
Sanders appears not to have expanded on the subject of the interview. CNN wrote that “one likely area of interest was how Sanders composed statements she made on the podium defending the President regarding the Russia investigation”.
Right-wing crank Ann Coulter has fired back at Trump after the president slighted her during his Rose Garden speech this morning.
“Forget the fact that he’s digging his own grave,” Coulter told LA-based radio station KABC. She was talking about Trump signing the congressional bill to end the government shutdown.
“The only national emergency is that our president is an idiot,” she continued.
Coulter was an early supporter of Trump, but turned on the president over his inaction on the much-touted border wall. Earlier on Friday Trump, 72, had criticized Coulter, describing her as “off the reservation”
“This is the worst open borders the country has ever had under the president who ran against open borders,” Coulter said.
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Donald Trump has just posted this bizarre video marking his State of the Union speech. It features REM’s Everybody Hurts and has lines from Trump’s address interspersed with unimpressed looking Democrats.
It seems to have been originally created by Twitter person @CarpeDonktum, a co-founder of the right-wing website Culttture.
“I love politics and making people laugh with funny, clever, and high quality meme videos and images,” @CarpeDonktum says on his Patreon page.
“I have combined my love of politics and comedy and now create memes to support President Trump and MAGA.
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2019
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Supreme Court to weigh census citizenship question
The Supreme Court is set to decide whether the government can add a question about citizenship to the next national census.
The Trump administration wanted to add the question: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” to the 2020 census.
Opponents said the question would lead to inaccurate census results, as both legal and undocumented immigrants would refuse to fill out the census form.
The government’s Census Bureau estimated that adding the question could depress responses in households with at least one non-citizen by as much as 5.8%. That could be particularly damaging in states like New York or California, which have large immigrant populations.
In January a federal judge in New York ruled that Trump’s administration could not put a question about citizenship on the census. Now the Supreme Court, newly furnished with two conservative justices, will have the final say.
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