As Trump confidant Roger Stone serves home confinement while waiting to report to prison on July 14, he is using Instagram to attack Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the federal judge who oversees his case. Stone previously ran afoul of Jackson after he used his Instagram account to post a picture that showed Jackson next to apparent gun crosshairs.
The image Stone posted on Instagram on July 4 references the film 300, a fictionalized account of the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, which pitted a small number of Spartan warriors against Persian King Xerxes I.
Jackson is depicted as Xerxes, the film’s main antagonist, and Stone is shown as a sword-wielding Leonidas, the leader of the Spartans. (At the climax of the film, Leonidas attempts to kill Xerxes by throwing a spear at him, but succeeds only in wounding him, before he and the rest of his men are overwhelmed by the Persian army.) The image references a line often used by Stone while discussing his criminal proceedings — his claim that he will not “bear false witness” against President Donald Trump. Continue reading.