Roger Stone faces a gag order.

The federal judge in Stone’s case, Amy Berman Jackson, has already hushed a coterie of others caught in special counsel Robert Mueller’s dragnet, including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and their attorneys. They were quieted after one of the lawyers told reporters that Mueller’s case was “ridiculous.”

If Stone is gagged, his contingency plan is already in place. He’s got a well-known First Amendment attorney on his legal team who represented the rap group 2 Live Crew against obscenity charges in the early 1990s. And Stone has designated a pair of close friends as spokesmen in the event he and his lawyers are told to stop talking.

Until then, Stone won’t stop chattering.

During Stone’s arraignment hearing on Tuesday, magistrate judge Deborah Robinson opened with a warning that he’d be wise to not speak about the charges in the indictment. “Any statements you make may be used against you,” she said.

But Grant Smith, one of Stone’s attorneys, said in an interview that Robinson’s comments appeared to him to be pro forma. And on social media, Stone acted as though he is still free to speak out.

Such gag orders are often more of a burden on the defense than the prosecution, since prosecutors typically issue a news release or hold a news conference to announce the charges and then go mum about the case — at least officially. In addition, Justice Department policies discourage government attorneys from the kinds of statements most gag orders would rule out.
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