Judge Tells U.S. to Tone It Down in Russian Meddling Prosecution

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge in Washington ordered the U.S. to limit the public statements it makes about a Russian consulting firm that was indicted for interfering in the 2016 election, but stopped short of finding the government in contempt.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich warned the government in an order issued July 1 and made public Monday that “any future violations of that order will trigger a range of potential sanctions,” possibly from an admonition to disbarment.

Concord Management and Consulting LLC, a company run by a man with close ties to the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who’s also known as Putin’s Chef, was accused of bankrolling a wide-ranging, multimillion-dollar operation using false names and social media accounts to promote Donald Trump’s candidacy during the campaign while attacking his rivals. The company asked the judge to find the government in criminal contempt for making prejudicial comments.

Friedrich agreed Attorney General William Barr’s statements crossed the line when he “‘confirmed’ what the indictment does not allege -- that Concord’s and its co-defendants’ activities were ‘sponsored’ by the ‘Russian government.”’

The judge said the U.S. also provided an opinion about Concord’s guilt and the strength of the evidence, statements that are prohibited by a legal rule.

Friedrich said she’s confident that passage of time and instructions given to a jury will resolve the issue of prejudice.

The case is U.S. v. Internet Research Agency, 18-cr-32, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

--With assistance from Andrew Harris.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Schneider in New York at jschneider5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg, Peter Jeffrey

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