Roger Stone continues efforts to drop his charges and get unredacted Mueller report
Roger Stone, longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, has inched closer to getting a less redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Appearing in U.S. District Court in Washington on Thursday before Judge Amy Berman Jackson for a motion hearing, Stone’s defense team and government prosecutors spent three hours explaining their arguments for and against a number of motions filed by Stone’s team, including one to dismiss the charges brought against him in the Mueller probe in January. Stone's legal team also requested to see a version of the Mueller report that removes redactions from portions involving him.
D.C. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Kravis argued that it would be improper to disclose redacted portions that served as prosecutorial “summaries” because, in some instances, they would reveal how the government “[tells] a story about an alleged crime” and how investigators prove it, revealing their factual write-up.
Jackson acknowledged “aspects where I could see it crossing the line” in removing redactions from portions of the report about Stone entirely, but said – in part because a large portion of the report was already made public – an alternative might be appropriate.
“I am troubled by the notion that that may be different in a case when half of the factual wrote-up has been publicized,” Jackson said, addressing the prosecution. “And so one thing I may want to do is to identify with some other color or in some manner the portions of the blue boxes that I want to ask you, assuming all of your arguments on the lack of any legal authority for producing them, what, if anything, would be the harm of producing them? I may want to take that step.”
Jackson opted not to make any decisions on the matter yet.
The Justice Department has made a less-redacted version of the Mueller report available to some members of Congress but the less-redacted version Stone could get would be limited to parts related to his case.
The judge grilled Stone’s defense team on their arguments for dropping the charges against him and claims he is a victim of selective prosecution because of his long-time support and close association with Trump and role with his presidential campaign. She pointed out that several others linked to the Trump campaign, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, were also prosecuted by the special counsel's team.
"But if the point is 'they grabbed me and charged me with lying and that's so unfair because they didn't charge anyone else with lying,' what do you do with all these other people?" Judge Jackson questioned Stone.
Asked how he felt the hearing went leaving the courthouse Thursday afternoon, Stone — and his legal team — all told ABC News “no comment.”
Stone is not the first of the defendants in the Mueller investigation to bring constitutional challenges against the special counsel.
Several federal courts have dismissed challenges to the special counsel’s authority on similar grounds, including an appeals case brought by a former aide to Stone, Andrew Miller. ABC News learned on Wednesday that Miller is scheduled to testify before a grand jury in DC on Friday after a nearly year-long subpoena battle.
Stone's latest court appearance comes on the heels of a public statement from the special counsel himself on Wednesday.
Stone's next appearance in court is scheduled for June 21. His trial is scheduled to commence in November.
