Reminder: This man has Richard Nixon's face tattooed on his back.

Following a procedural hearing, Roger Stone emerged from a Florida courtroom on Friday morning and promptly expressed his personal motto, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

The crowd surrounding the courthouse was talking. It greeted Stone’s appearance with a loud chorus of boos. As Stone began to whine about the fact that “24 FBI officers” in “17 vehicles” showed up at his house, where they upset his dog, the various shouts and calls from the surrounding crowd suddenly coalesced into an ironic chant of “Lock him up! Lock him up!”

While police appeared to attempt to quiet the crowd, volume levels made it difficult to hear much of what Stone had to say, which is just … not that sad.

However, Stone did make it clear that he was “one of Trump’s oldest friends,” and that he still intended to refuse any offer of cooperation with the special counsel’s office.

Stone: I will not testify against the president ... because I would have to bear false witness against him. … I have told the truth through this entire proceeding. I will prove that in a court of law.

That “proof” would seemed to be extraordinarily unlikely, since the court documents record, in email and testimony, not just obvious lies and omissions, but threats of physical violence against another witness (and violence against his dog—Stone seems to have a thing about dogs). The time that Robert Mueller’s team took in nailing down the contents of the court documents shows in every paragraph of the indictment, as there seems to be nothing mentioned that isn’t ironclad evidence of perjury, obstruction, or witness tampering.

Stone was allowed to leave after paying a bond of $250,000 and agreeing to travel restrictions. He did not turn over a passport, informing the judge that he does not have a current valid passport. Stone will be limited to an area around south Florida and Washington, D.C. His next appearance is likely to be in a federal courtroom in the capital.