Judge in Roger Stone case is about to show him 'who is in charge': report
A Monday MSNBC panel had guests yucking it up over Roger Stone's tendency to walk up to lines drawn and mock them. Such was the case as Stone headed into court again for a "check-in" over whether he's been able to comply with Judge Amy Berman Jackson's gag order.
Veteran prosecutor Paul Henderson predicted that Jackson is about to put the hammer down on Paul Manafort.
"And all of the other reports are only going to make that sentence even worse for him," Henderson continued. "I think the real issue here, and what a lot of folks have been talking about is whether or not these sentences are going to be concurrent or consecutive. And here these are separate crimes. I think it's clear that this judge is moving in the direction that the sentences are not going to be concurrent."
The last time Roger Stone was in trouble over the gag order, Jackson said that she gave him a second chance and he will not get a third.
"Do you think her saying that on the record and the nation knowing it really raises the pressure on her to have meaningful punishment for him now?" asked host Ari Melber.
Legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said that Jackson put herself in a box by saying he doesn't have a third chance, because now she has to hold him accountable when he crosses the line.
"I think she is going to see Stone's transgression here as a bit of a foul tip," Kirschner said. "I have a feeling she is not yet ready to, as we say in D.C., step 'em back, which is basically take him into custody and detain him pending trial. We saw the post where he said, 'Who Framed Roger Stone,' which does seem to violate the modified gag order that she handed down last time. We did hear that, I guess, a rerelease of a book is in progress. I just don't know that she's going to see this as enough of a direct transgression of her modified gag order."
Melber noted that Stone tends to parse words "all the way up to the boundary."
"And he does it for the attention," Kirschner agreed. "I think he is getting exactly what he wants. But I have a feeling she is going to treat him like the teenager that he's behaving she is going to take his phone. She is going to ban him from social media. She is going to send him to his room, perhaps put him on home detention with electronic monitoring via a GPS ankle bracelet, and I think she is going to call this one a foul tip and give him one more chance, and then if he violates, step him back. I could be wrong. She no nonsense. She may say you know what? I've already had enough with you."
Watch the full segment below: