Court again denies Roger Stone’s attempt to get new judge

A federal court denied, for the second time, Roger Stone’s attempt to get a new judge overseeing his criminal case.

When the case was filed, prosecutors indicated that it related to a separate criminal case against Russian military officers alleging the hack of Democrats in 2016. Stone was not charged in that alleged conspiracy, and instead faces several counts of witness tampering, obstruction and lying.

He has objected to his case being grouped with the Russians’ twice, and both times Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied his attempts. If she had agreed, his case may have been reassigned to a different judge.

Stone has pleaded not guilty, and he will appear in court Thursday morning.

The court’s denial on Tuesday comes as Jackson prepares to hear arguments later this week on several other requests from Stone in his case.

His attorneys have asked to see an unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and to throw out parts of the Justice Department’s case against him. Many of the details about Mueller’s investigation into Stone are still unknown because his case is headed to trial, and the Justice Department redacted swaths of Mueller’s report about Stone.

Prosecutors say there are search warrants used in both the Russian hacking case and the Stone case, and the two cases relate to “activities which are a part of the same alleged criminal event or transaction,” Jackson wrote in a court order on Tuesday.

The end of Mueller’s investigation — and his lack of additional charges against Stone — didn’t change things either, Berman noted.

Jackson has handled several other cases that arose from the Mueller investigation, including that of lobbyist and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The Russians haven’t appeared in US court since they were charged.