Trump confidant Roger Stone deletes Instagram post with crosshairs symbol above judge, says didn’t mean to threaten her

US President Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone apologised after posting on Instagram a photo of the judge overseeing his trial for allegedly making false statements to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering.

The photo of US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, which included a symbol that appeared to represent crosshairs, was later taken down.

Stone then reposted it without the crosshairs before deleting the second post.

A lawyer for Stone said in a filing in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that Stone “apologises to the Court for the improper photograph and comment” and said “Mr Stone recognises the impropriety and had it removed”.

The judge issued a gag order on Friday that prohibits lawyers involved in the case from speaking with the news media and prohibits other participants, such as Stone himself, from making statements that may affect the case when they are near the courthouse.

“A photo of Judge Jackson posted on my Instagram has been misinterpreted. This was a random photo taken from the Internet,” Stone said in a statement posted to Instagram.

“Any inference that this was meant to somehow threaten the Judge or disrespect court is categorically false.”

Stone also disputed that the original post included crosshairs.

“What some say are crosshairs are in fact the logo of the organisation that originally posted it – something called Corruption Central,” Stone told The Washington Post.

“They use the logo in many photos.”

The photograph does indeed appear on at least one far-right blog, emblazoned with the crosshairs-like logo.

Stone has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russia’s role in the 2016 US election and whether Trump’s Republican campaign conspired with Moscow.

Reuters, The Washington Post