Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied a request from Roger Stone to have his case reassigned, issuing the order within an hour of the issue being fully briefed.
Stone had asked that the criminal case against him be consciously uncoupled from the prosecution of Russian hackers at the Internet Research Agency, who are accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election.
“The Court will take no action with respect to the current assignment of this case,” Berman Jackson wrote in a minute order.
Her order came one hour after special counsel Robert Mueller filed a memorandum stating that search warrants of internet accounts used by the alleged hackers had uncovered communications with Stone.
Stone, a longtime GOP operative, had previously admitted in public to corresponding with Guccifer 2.0 during the 2016 election cycle. Guccifer was a Twitter avatar for the Russian hackers.
Stone, who faces charges of obstruction, witness tampering, and lying to Congress, also claimed advance knowledge of the contents of the hack of Democrats’ emails before Wikileaks began to release them in advance of the 2016 election.
Berman Jackson issued a partial gag order on the case earlier today, forbidding Stone from speaking about the case on the courthouse steps but allowing him to express himself otherwise — potentially at his own peril.
