Roger Stone faces judge Thursday after posting her image on Instagram with crosshairs

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (KTLA) -- Roger Stone is in hot water heading into a court hearing on Thursday afternoon.

The longtime Republican political operative and self-described “dirty trickster” faces a federal judge who wants to address his recent antics while he awaits trial. Two posts he made on Instagram on Monday could put at risk his ability to stay out of jail and the leeway he has to speak about his case publicly.

The first post was a picture of Judge Amy Berman Jackson with what appeared to be the crosshairs of a gun drawn behind her head. Stone's caption called special counsel Robert Mueller a “Deep State hitman,” said his case was a “show trial” and implied that Jackson was biased as an Obama appointee and because she had ruled on a Benghazi-related case and “incarcerated Paul Manafort.” “#Fixisin,” Stone added to his post.

Soon after, he replaced the post with a cropped image of Jackson, this time with the crosshairs cut out. He also slightly altered the text about Mueller and added a few more hashtags.