Roger Stone, through a formal court document his lawyers submitted, has apologized for an image posted to his Instagram account earlier in the day showing the face of the judge in his criminal case next to an apparent crosshairs symbol.
“Please inform the court that the photograph and comment today was improper and should not have been posted,” Stone said in the court document. “I had no intention of disrespecting the court and humbly apologize to the court for the transgression.”
The photo of U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson appeared on the former Trump adviser’s account Monday afternoon and included the symbol in the corner.
Stone told CBS News the removed image was posted by someone who worked for him and wasn’t meant to be threatening. He initially defended the post.
The text of the post criticized an order Jackson issued Friday placing some limits on what he and his lawyers can publicly say about his case. Stone, who faced immediate backlash on Twitter after posting the image, soon took the photo down.
Stone told CBS News the image had been misinterpreted and was not meant as a threat.
“I have objected to the manner in which my case was assigned to a specific judge rather than the judge being selected randomly,” Stone told CBS News in a text message. “The judge rejected the motion by my attorneys from which there is no appeal. I do not believe that I have violated any order of the court and that these sentiments for within my First Amendment rights. Any inference that this in someway threatens the judge is false. Because it is open to misinterpretation I’m going to take it down.”
“One of the people who works for me posted it but I disagree that it violates any aspect of the judge’s order,” Stone added. “Because it has been [misinterpreted] I ordered it taken down In though everything contained was factual.”
Stone claimed the crosshairs were a “symbol of some type. This was a random photo taken from the internet and not Photoshopped by anyone I know.”
But Stone then said the symbol came from a group called Corruption Central, and they use the logo in many photos.
Stone was arrested in a pre-dawn raid in January at his home in Florida after being indicted on charges of lying, obstruction and witness tampering related to the special counsel’s Russia investigation. He has pleaded not guilty and is currently free on $250,000 bond.
