ROGER STONE
Roger Jason Stone Jr. (born August 27, 1952) is an American
political consultant, lobbyist and strategist noted for his use of opposition
research, usually for candidates of the Republican Party. Since the 1970s, Stone has worked on the campaigns
of key Republican politicians such as Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp,
Bob Dole and Donald Trump.
In addition to serving as a frequent campaign advisor, Stone was previously a political lobbyist. In 1980, he co-founded the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone with principals Paul Manafort and Charles R. Black Jr. The firm recruited Peter G. Kelly and was renamed Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly in 1984.
During the 1980s, BMSK became a top lobbying firm by leveraging its White House connections to attract high-paying clients including U.S. corporations, trade associations, and foreign governments. By 1990, it was one of the leading lobbyists for American companies and foreign organizations.
Stone is a self-described "dirty trickster" and has variously been referred to in media as a "renowned infighter", a "seasoned practitioner of hard-edged politics", a "mendacious windbag" and a "veteran Republican strategist". We left out "lying prick and scumbag".
Over the course of the Trump presidential campaign, Stone promoted a number of falsehoods and conspiracy theories. He has described his political modus operandi as "Attack, attack, attack—never defend" and "Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack."
Stone is the subject of a Netflix documentary film, titled Get Me Roger Stone, which focuses on his past and on his role in the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Stone first suggested Trump run for President in the spring of 1998 while Stone was Trump's casino business lobbyist in Washington.
Stone officially left the Trump campaign on August 8, 2015; however, it has been reported that, as part of the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States election, two associates of Stone have claimed he collaborated with WikiLeaks owner Julian Assange in the spring of 2016 to discredit Hillary Clinton's campaign. Stone has denied this.
A defiant effort to exonerate himself in the Trump-Russia saga also looks like a campaign to raise money and sell books. Defying the advice of pretty much every defense lawyer in America, Roger Stone won’t stop talking.
The longtime political adviser to President Donald Trump gives lengthy interviews about his role in the 2016 presidential election. He writes combative op-eds about Robert Mueller, who is investigating him. He invites reporters into his home for open-ended hangout sessions.
It’s all part of a pre-emptive counterattack against the special counsel’s Russia investigation, which many legal experts believe is inexorably closing in on Stone.
And if you didn’t know better, you might think Stone is enjoying himself.
Several times in a typical week, the flamboyant self-described GOP dirty trickster vehemently denies being a 2016 middleman between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the Trump campaign — a subject Mueller’s team is carefully examining. Along the way, he cheerfully insults Mueller, denounces the “Deep State,” attacks the media and ridicules such enemies as “Dumb-Fatman (Steve Bannon).”
He also hawks his books, promotes his public appearances, and raises money to pay his lawyers.
All the while, he appears unfazed that his media saturation makes him an open book for Mueller’s prosecutors as they assess whether the truth of the 2016 campaign makes him a criminal or just a crude braggart.
Even lawyers he’s consulted with admit it’s a risky move considering Mueller has held other people’s public commentary against them in court.
But a clear reminder of the benefit of being in the public eye came on Monday, when Trump cited Stone’s vow, made on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” a day earlier, that he would never testify against the president. Trump approvingly tweeted that the stance took “guts!”
The next day, Stone’s friend and former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo sent out a mass email announcing the creation of a GoFundMe legal defense fund for Stone’s legal bills “to pay the costs he’s incurring due to his two year torture.” Caputo said Stone, who posted an Instagram image of himself last month wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigar in a beach chair, has “lost everything.”
Stone’s friends and lawyers said the former Richard Nixon campaign aide and peripheral Watergate figure can’t say no to the media despite concerns about adding to his legal jeopardy. Every opportunity helps him maintain his public persona and raise money to pay soaring legal fees connected to the Russia probe.
“Staying quiet isn’t going to attract contributions,” said Kendall Coffey, a Miami-based former federal prosecutor who briefly discussed joining Stone’s legal defense team in mid-2017. “Staying low profile offers no benefits for him.”
Stone himself said he wouldn’t deploy any other media strategy. Like Trump, with whom he’s had a business relationship off and on for more than 40 years, Stone’s mantra is to keep attacking — no matter the potential legal risk.
“The danger is in not speaking,” Stone said in an interview earlier this year. “When you’re silent, people assume you are guilty of something.”
Roger Stone CONGRESS
Stone pleads the Fifth to snub Senate document request. On Tuesday, Stone doubled down in an email to POLITICO, saying he needed a continued presence in print and on the television and radio airwaves to push back against mainstream media outlets who have published “willful omissions, misrepresentations, recycled falsehoods and half-truths” about his efforts on behalf of Trump during the 2016 White House campaign.
“I have no choice but to punch back and use every available forum to do so,” he said. But the public exposure also brings legal exposure, legal experts say.
“Most defense lawyers would say don’t show any of your cards,” said Coffey. “Hold back because you don’t know how the government information is crystallizing. You don’t know how the possible defense might emerge. To lock yourself into a narrative is usually a mistake for a prospective defendant.”
Mueller is clearly willing to make people pay for their public commentary, even if it’s not under oath. Last month, his prosecutors cited George Papadopolous’ tweets in a motion arguing the former Trump campaign adviser should not get a delay in serving his prison sentence.
Stone’s “Truman Show” media strategy includes allowing a documentary film crew to follow him for more than five years surrounding Trump’s rise to the pinnacle of political power in the 2016 presidential campaign. He continues to host a syndicated live radio show broadcast from his homes in South Florida and Manhattan. He also regularly contributes op-eds about the nuances of the Mueller probe to the Daily Caller, the conservative website that lists him as its “Men’s Fashion Editor."
More recently, Stone has been the subject of profiles by the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor. And he keeps jumping at the opportunity for television airtime to comment whenever his name surfaces in the headlines