The day after special counselor Robert Mueller flagged one of Roger Stone’s Instagram posts as a possible gag order violation, CNBC reported Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s crony has now deleted two websites he was using to fund his defense against seven criminal charges—which include witness tampering and lying to Congress.
One of the deleted websites mimicked Stone’s flagged Instagram which asked: “Who Framed Roger Stone?” (a la the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?). New York Magazine correspondent Olivia Nuzzi tweeted that www.whoframedrogerstone.com was created as a legal defense fund in 2017.
Roger Stone launched the website “Who Framed Roger Stone,” a legal defense fund, in 2017. https://t.co/hHe0dSMr4u
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) March 3, 2019
“Roger Stone refuses to be pressured into testifying against President Trump,” the website read as of Feb. 6, according to internet archive the Wayback Machine. “His legal fees in this epic fight could top $2 million, threatening to destroy him and his family. Please help us. Everything will be used to help defray the costs of keeping up the battle against those that would silence Roger Stone and turn him against President Trump.”
The site also accused Mueller of “criminiliz[ing] normal political activities” while “ignoring the blatantly illegal activities of the Clinton campaign and the Obama NSA, DOJ and FBI.”
Although the exact date whoframedrogerstone.com was taken offline is unclear, it looks almost identical to www.stonedefensefund.com — which is still online but doesn’t accuse Mueller or other parties of framing Stone.
CNBC reports that although www.stonezone.com was functional Sunday night, as of Tuesday morning it has been taken offline.
Stone was given a strict gag order after he had posted an Instagram with an image of a target around U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Feb. 18. (He apologized citing “emotional stress.”)
Although Stone’s lawyer unsuccessfully argued that his client shouldn’t be subject to a gag order specifically because he didn’t have the social clout of a celebrity like “Kim Kardashian”, it’s Instagram, the reality star’s social media of choice, that could send him to jail and revoke his $250k release bond pending trial.
Stone did not immediately reply to Fortune’s request for comment and responded to CNBC’s request with a blank email.
