Roger Stone will appear on Friday before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who had previously issued gag orders on Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images Legal Roger Stone says he may fight a court muzzling Facing a possible gag order after his arrest, Stone on Thursday said he hoped the judge would 'take into consideration' that speaking publicly is his job.

Roger Stone said Thursday he may appeal if he is hit with a gag order before his criminal trial for lying to Congress and obstructing lawmakers’ Russia probe.

Appearing at a wide-ranging news conference in Washington, D.C., the longtime Donald Trump associate said his legal team would try to make the case in federal court that silencing him could hurt his ability to make a living as a commentator while he fights back against the charges lodged by special counsel Robert Mueller.


“That’s certainly a possibility. We will deal with that as it comes,” Stone said of the prospect of a gag order.

Stone was indicted and arrested on Friday, hit with a series of charges that alleged the longtime GOP operative misled House Intelligence Committee investigators about his attempts to communicate with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. The indictment also accused Stone of intimidating another witness in the Russia probe.

On Friday, Stone will appear before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson for his first status hearing in the case. In her prior Mueller probe cases, Jackson slapped gag orders on Stone’s former business partner, Paul Manafort, as well as Manafort’s attorneys and his then co-defendant, Rick Gates.

Legal experts say a similar gag order is likely against Stone, who has been on a media blitz since his arrest last week in South Florida.

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Looking toward a possible gag order showdown, Stone said Thursday that he hoped Jackson would “take into consideration” that speaking publicly is his full-time job. Stone also noted Mueller’s prosecutors hadn’t yet filed any motion to gag him, but added that he would demand a hearing to push back if they do.

“If they should do that, on the other hand, I also have the right to appeal,” Stone said.

The conspiracy theory website InfoWars hosted Stone at Thursday’s news conference at the J.W. Marriott hotel, just a block from the White House. There, Stone spoke for about 40 minutes, covering numerous topics. But much of the freewheeling Q&A echoed what Stone has trotted out in other media interviews since his arrest last week.

Stone said he hadn’t spoken to Trump — a longtime friend and political client for about four decades — since his arrest. He also said he was “heartened” by the reaction of Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and some House GOP lawmakers, who this week have called on the FBI to explain its predawn arrival at Stone’s home, and whether it tipped off CNN beforehand.

Mueller’s office has said in court filings it kept its arrest plans under wraps because of a concern that publicizing the charges would “increase the risk of the defendant fleeing and destroying (or tampering with) evidence.” CNN, for its part, said it made the decision to stake out Stone’s Fort Lauderdale home based on its own reporting.

After Stone’s arrest, the FBI went into his home, apartment and office to recover physical devices, according to a Thursday court filing from Mueller’s team. After a “filter review” of the device content “for potentially privileged communications,” authorities will turn over the information to Stone’s attorneys through discovery.

Mueller’s team also said it would hand over its own “voluminous and complex” evidence to Stone’s lawyers, including “multiple hard drives containing several terabytes of information” from FBI case reports, search warrant applications, Apple iCloud accounts, email accounts, bank and financial records, as well as the contents from cellphones, computers and hard drives that “span several years.”

Looking ahead to a potential criminal trial, Stone on Thursday skirted a question about whether he’d take the witness stand and testify in his own defense.

“No decision has been made on that,” he said, noting it’s a topic he’d look to his lawyers for advice. “I don’t think they could answer that at this time.”

Stone also pushed back against the notion he would plead guilty and become a government witness testifying against Trump. “What I’m saying is, I will not make up stories,” he said. “I will not bear false witness. I will not say things that are not true.”

Many legal experts have questioned Stone’s strategy of speaking up while under investigation — and now since his arrest. But Stone defended his approach as the only one that he says can demonstrate he’s not guilty.

“I don’t think I said anything today that I may regret,” Stone said.