A week after being afforded the opportunity to argue against the idea of a gag order in his criminal case, political operative Roger Stone said that his public discussion of the case wouldn’t prevent the court from finding impartial jurors. After all, it’s not like he’s Kim Kardashian.
Seriously, that was one of his arguments.
First, Stone raised constitutional issues with the gag order, even though Judge Amy Berman Jackson recently issued one in Paul Manafort‘s case. He noted that prior restraints against free speech must be addressed with strict scrutiny, and that there must be “a clear and present danger to the seating of an impartial jury,” in order to keep him from talking.
Stone then argued why there could be no such danger, because while he’s well-known in political circles and by those who follow politics, his fame is nothing compared to Kim Kardashian.
“An example of how limited and narrow his public presence is, is that Kim Kardashian has 59.5 million followers on Twitter,” Stone’s court filing said. “By contrast, Roger Stone has no Twitter account at all and, thus has no Twitter followers.”
Having addressed Twitter, Stone then moved on to Instagram. While Stone has a presence on that social media platform, Kardashian has more followers than some religions.
“On Instagram, Kim Kardashian has 126 million followers,” the filing pointed out. “Roger Stone’s Instagram following amounts to 39 thousand subscribers.”
Stone noted that Judge Berman Jackson said last week, “Right now, not-withstanding the fact that the defendant may be well known within certain circles, I believe that we will be able to seat an unbiased jury, that doesn’t have an opinion about the allegations of this case.”
Given that he’s no Kardashian, Stone doesn’t expect that to change.
[Image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
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