User:ElijahPepe/Roger Stone

Roger Jason Stone Jr. (born Roger Joseph Stone Jr.; August 27, 1952) is an American conservative political consultant and lobbyist. Since the 1970s, he has worked on the campaigns of Republican politicians, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, and—most prominently—Donald Trump. Stone co-founded the lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly in 1980 with Charles R. Black Jr. and Paul Manafort, later recruiting Peter G. Kelly in 1984.

Drawn to conservatism after reading Barry Goldwater's book The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), Stone supported Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign as a child. He attended George Washington University but dropped out; while there, he was hired to spy on rival presidential campaigns during the Democratic Party presidential primaries for Nixon's 1972 campaign as part of a clandestine operation that became part of the Watergate scandal. Stone worked in Reagan's unsuccessful bid for president in 1976 and became the president of the Young Republicans in 1977. Known as the "keeper of the Nixon flame", he advised Nixon following his presidency. Stone continued to work for Reagan in his 1980 presidential campaign under the behest of John Sears and was "instrumental" to his 1984 campaign. Black, Manafort and Stone became one of the most prominent lobbying firms by 1990, although it gained notoriety for its clientele such as dictators Ferdinand Marcos and Mobutu Sese Seko, being known as "the torturers' lobby".

In the early 1980s, Stone began working with Donald Trump through Black, Manafort and Stone, who was the firm's first client. He began working with Trump more directly in the 1990s as a lobbyist for the nascent Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. In 1999, Stone became the campaign manager for Trump's 2000 presidential campaign. He served as an advisor for Trump's 2016 campaign until August 2015. Business partner Paul Manafort served as Trump's campaign manager. During his time working for Trump, Stone repeatedly communicated with WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. Despite his departure, Stone's support for Trump intensified in the years since and, in April 2016, he founded the pro-Trump activist group Stop the Steal. During the 2020 United States presidential election, he supported Trump once again; following Trump's loss to Joe Biden, Stone spread multiple unproven allegations of voter fraud. He was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack in November 2021. Stone has reaffirmed his support for Trump in his 2024 campaign.

Stone's communications with Russian officials and WikiLeaks received scrutiny. During the 2016 presidential election, John Podesta, the chairman for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, accused him of having knowledge of Podesta's emails before they were released. Conservative publication The Washington Times reported that Stone had contact with Guccifer 2.0, the persona of a Russian hacker or hacker group that gained access into the servers of the Democratic National Committee. On January 25, 2019, Stone's Fort Lauderdale, Florida home was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and he was arrested in connection to Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation. He was charged with one count of witness tampering, one count of obstructing an official proceeding, and five counts of making false statements to Congress and indicted in November 2019; Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison. His term was commuted by Trump in July 2020 and he was pardoned on December 23, 2020.

Early life and education
Roger Joseph Stone Jr. was born on August 27, 1952 in Norwalk, Connecticut, the oldest of three children. His parents, of Italian and Hungarian descent, were Gloria Rose (Corbo) Stone and Roger J. Stone. As a child, the Stones moved to Lewisboro, New York. His mother wrote for the local newspaper and was a Cub Scout den mother, while his father ran a well drilling company and was a member of the Vista Fire Department. According to Stone, his family was middle class, blue collar, and Catholic. He took an active interest in politics early on; in an interview with The Washington Post, he recounted telling classmates that Richard Nixon was in favor of school on Saturdays to further John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign during the 1960 United States presidential election, calling it his "first political trick". Stone believed that, although his parents were Republicans, they held a special admiration for Kennedy because he was a Catholic.



Stone became particularly involved in politics when a neighbor gave him a copy of Barry Goldwater's book The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), convincing him to become a conservative. He took to wearing a Goldwater button to school and ran errands for the local Republican headquarters after school despite being seen as an outcast by his peers. Stone's bedroom was decorated "like the Goldwater headquarters", adorned with posters of Goldwater and vice presidential nominee William E. Miller. When Goldwater lost the 1964 presidential election to Lyndon B. Johnson, he was "crushed", didn't eat for days, and cried. A year later, Stone began commuting to New York to support the mayoral campaign of William F. Buckley, Jr., founder of the National Review. Buckley's son, Christopher Buckley, reportedly threw him into a hotel swimming pool while attending the 1968 Republican National Convention, a claim Buckley denies. Stone was first introduced to former president Richard Nixon through his mentor, Connecticut governor and ambassador John Davis Lodge. He met Nixon in 1967; Lodge appointed him as the chairman of Youth for Nixon a year later.

Stone attended John Jay High School in Westchester County, where he ran for president of his freshmen class. He became vice president of the student body his junior year and president his senior year. According to his mother, Stone's extravagant campaigns earned him an honorary athletic letter, the only one in the school's history. Social studies teacher John Wirchansky said people bunted for him and walked down the aisles "in hats". In an interview with The New York Times, he said, "I built alliances and put all my serious challengers on my ticket. Then I recruited the most unpopular guy in the school to run against me. You think that's mean? No, it's smart." In 1970, Stone enrolled in George Washington University and moved to Washington, D.C.. He became president of the District of Columbia charter of the Young Republicans and regularly attended Young Americans for Freedom meetings while his roommates, according to Stone, "[protested] the Vietnam War". Stone claimed to have attended George Washington University for five years and majored in political science, but the university's registrar shows that he only completed two years and signed up for continuous enrollment, but only completed one more course the following year. He later stated that the courses were "not relevant to real life".

1971–1979: Nixon's 1972 campaign and the New Right
In 1971, Stone was dispatched by Nixon campaign aide Herbert Porter to deliver a pamphlet prepared by aides Porter, Pat Buchanan, and Ken Khachigian criticizing Democratic presidential hopeful Edmund Muskie to Democrat George McGovern's headquarters and the Manchester Union-Leader. On another occasion, he made a contribution posing as the Young Socialist Alliance and delivered the receipt to New Hampshire news outlets. In 1972, the Committee for the Re-Election of the President sought a full-time "prankster". Stone convinced deputy director Jeb Stuart Magruder into giving him a job as a scheduler. Porter enlisted Stone into finding an operative who could penetrate into the campaign of Democratic candidates. He would find a Kentucky campaign worker named Michael McMinoway under the alias Jason Rainer. McMinoway worked the campaigns of three Democratic candidates, including McGovern and Muskie. Nixon would go on to win the 1972 presidential election and Stone worked in the Office of Economic Opportunity. Amid the Watergate scandal, he worked on the Virginia gubernatorial campaign for Mills Godwin and became a junior staffer for senator Bob Dole in December 1973. Despite being cleared by the Senate Watergate Committee and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the scandal cost Stone his position with Dole and he was viewed as a pariah. Stone's departure came after columnist Jack Anderson called him a "dirty trickster", although he contends that he was given notice before the column appeared.

Following Nixon's presidency, Stone was described as the "keeper of the Nixon flame" by The New York Times. He became Nixon's liaison for communications to president Ronald Reagan and organized dinners with journalists at Nixon's Park Ridge, New Jersey home. Stone became involved in the second New Right in the wake of the Goldwater campaign. In 1975, he co-founded the National Conservative Political Action Committee with John Terry Dolan and Charles Black, a New Right political action committee. Stone worked in Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign. In 1977, he secured the presidency of the Young Republicans through the support of his friend from the College Republicans, Paul Manafort. Manafort had a dossier on the group's eight hundred delegates and managed Stone's campaign. The two would turn against Neal Acker, an Alabama lawyer who sought the presidency and would succeed Stone after he balked at supporting Reagan. Manafort turned the vote against Acker in a political scheme one of his whips called "one of the great fuck jobs".

1980–1989: Reagan's 1980 campaign and Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly
Stone, a supporter of Reagan, was drawn to his 1980 presidential campaign through strategist John Sears. He coordinated his campaign in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Lawyer Roy Cohn first met Stone at a New York dinner party in 1979. Stone, in need of office space, sought out noted real estate developer Donald Trump on Cohn's suggestion. Stone met Trump for the first time in 1979. Trump's father, Fred Trump, gave Reagan for President US$200,000. The Trumps found the Reagan campaign a town house next to the 21 Club. According to Stone, Cohn helped him arrange for independent John B. Anderson to secure the nomination for the Liberal Party of New York, a move that would split opposition for Reagan. He said Cohn gave him a suitcase that he avoided opening and that, as instructed by Cohn, he dropped off at the office of a lawyer influential in Liberal Party circles. Reagan would carry the state in 1980. In an interview with The Weekly Standard correspondent Matt Labash, Stone said that he paid Cohn's law firm but reserved that he "didn't know what he did for the money". According to Trump, Stone urged him to run in the 1988 presidential election, but he refused.

In 1980, Stone founded Black, Manafort and Stone with Charles R. Black Jr. and Paul Manafort, the latter of whom had controlled the Reagan campaign in the South. The firm was founded out of upheaval that left Black unemployed; following the New Hampshire primaries, Reagan fired his top staff, including Black. Trump was the firm's first client. Black, Manafort and Stone is considered to be the first "double-breasted operation" in that the firm employed two ventures: one venture ran campaigns, while the other lobbied for politicians. Lee Atwater, known for using the Southern strategy and a pioneer of race-baiting tactics, was hired to the consulting side. Black, Manafort and Stone hired former Democratic National Committee finance chairman Peter G. Kelly as a partner. Partners, including Stone, told The Washington Post that they had intended to take home US$450000 1986. Despite being known as "the torturer's lobby" for representing clients such as dictators Ferdinand Marcos and Mobutu Sese Seko,  Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly became one of the largest lobbying firms in Washington, D.C. As partner, Stone worked on Thomas Kean's 1981 and 1985 campaigns. During the 1988 Republican Party presidential primaries, Stone advised Jack Kemp, while Black advised Bob Dole and Atwater advised George H. W. Bush, leading one congressional staffer to joke to Time, "Why have primaries for the nomination? Why not have the candidates go over to Black, Manafort and Stone and argue it out?"

1990–1997: Leaving Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly and Dole's 1996 campaign
In 1990, Stone became involved in a public feud with Roger Ailes, Bush's media director for his 1988 presidential campaign and president of Ailes Communications. Connecticut Republican chairman Richard Foley attacked Ailes for negotiating to handle the gubernatorial campaign of Lowell Weicker. In turn, Ailes accused Stone of attempting to "mess [him] up" and retaliated by stating that one of his partners worked for Anthony J. Celebrezze, a Democrat running for governor of Ohio. According to The New York Times, the incident embarrassed both Ailes Communications and Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. On January 1, 1991, Burson-Marsteller, itself a subsidiary of the communications group Young and Rubicam, acquired Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. Acting on the behalf of the company, Black said that the firm would no longer engage in political activities. In the years after his feud with Ailes, Stone attracted controversy. In 1992, Time alleged Stone approved a series of advertisements attacking Michael Dukakis including Willie Horton to further George H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. Stone denied having been involved in the advertisements and said he urged Atwater into not including Horton. In 1996, The National Enquirer reported that Stone and his wife, Nydia, had put advertisements in magazines and websites seeking for partners to engage in swinging with. He denied the report on Good Morning America, but the scandal cost him his consultant job with Bob Dole for his 1996 presidential campaign; Stone was the president of Senator Arlen Specter's presidential campaign instead. In a later interview with Jeffrey Toobin, he admitted to having placed the advertisements. That year, Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly merged with Gold and Liebengood—a lobbying firm comprising Martin B. Gold and Howard Scholer Liebengood—creating BKSH & Associates. Stone left the resulting firm.

1998–2009: Trump's 2000 campaign, Brooks Brothers riot, and Eliot Spitzer
According to The American Spectator contributor Dave Shiflett, Donald Trump considered a run for president as far back as late 1998. Trump asked Stone, then his top aide and a lobbyist for his casino business, to find the "most eminent hack writer in America" to put his political beliefs into a book; the book would become The America We Deserve (2000). Before running Trump's 2000 campaign, Stone was briefly involved in Pat Buchanan's campaign; investigative journalist Wayne Barrett accused Stone of of persuading Trump to publicly consider a run for the Reform Party nomination to sideline Buchanan, sabotage the Reform Party, and thus secure George W. Bush the nomination. Stone led an exploratory committee into a potential campaign in the 2000 presidential election. Stone's role in Trump's campaign is debated, although he was its manager. In 2008, Trump told The New Yorker, "He always tries taking credit for things he never did". During the election recount in Florida, Stone was recruited by James Baker and courted protesters. He has claimed that helped manage the Brooks Brothers riot in Miami-Dade County, Florida from a Winnebago; Brad Blakeman contends that he was the one in the Winnebago and didn't see Stone. In Down & Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency (2001), Jake Tapper states that, while Stone was in the Winnebago, Blakeman led the operations. Following the election, Stone became involved with businessman Thomas Golisano's campaign in the 2002 New York gubernatorial election. During the 2004 presidential election, he was unexpectedly hired as an unpaid advisor to Democratic candidate Al Sharpton.

Stone was the subject of several controversies in the years following and including the 2004 presidential election. Campaign Extra! and journalist Dave Davies alleged that a series of yard signs linking Arlen Specter to Democratic candidate John Kerry were the work of Stone. Simultaneously, he was accused by then Democratic National Convention chairman Terry McAuliffe of forging the Killian memos at the center of a military service controversy regarding George W. Bush, an accusation he denied. In the most noteworthy of these controversies, lawyers representing Bernard Spitzer, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer's father, claimed that Stone threatened the elder Spitzer in an expletive-laden voicemail. Although he denied leaving the voicemail, he resigned from being then-New York State Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno's top advisor. Trump is quoted as saying that what Stone did was "ridiculous and stupid". In the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, he claimed that the younger Spitzer wore knee-high black socks while having sex according to a letter he claimed he sent the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); the FBI never received the letter, which surfaced after the scandal. In spite of authenticity issues, media organizations such as The New York Times ran with the story regardless. In 2008, he created a 527 group known as "Citizens United Not Timid", intentionally named to form the obscene acronym "CUNT", against then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The conservative organization Citizens United accused the group of using the success of Hillary: The Movie (2008), a film that would ultimately lead to Citizens United v. FEC (2010). After several months, Stone changed the name to "Citizens Uniformly Not Timid".

2010–2014: Libertarian Party and other political activities
Stone became particularly involved in the Libertarian Party in 2010. He became a pro bono advisor for "Manhattan Madam" Kristin M. Davis—who was linked to the Spitzer prostitution scandal—in her New York gubernatorial bid in 2010. Simultaneously, he supported Republican candidate Carl Paladino, who hired Michael Caputo as his campaign manager; Caputo is a protégé of Stone. He publicly admitted to supporting both candidates in that Davis would get the Libertarian Party onto the ballot while Paladino would win.

2015–2021: Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns and the January 6 Capitol attack
Leading up to the January 6 Capitol attack, Stone made a series of appearances in direct response to Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election. Video obtained by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack showed that Stone supported violence. Shortly after midnight on December 12, 2020, Stone spoke from the steps of a JW Marriott hotel in Washington, D.C. Receiving security detail from members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia, he urged followers to "fight until the bitter end". That day, four people were stabbed when Trump supporters clashed with counterprotesters at a Million MAGA March. Stone, Steve Bannon, and Michael Flynn spoke at a Stop the Steal event a day before the attack.

Personal life
Stone married his first wife Anne Elizabeth Wesche in 1974. Using the name Ann E.W. Stone, she founded the group Republicans for Choice in 1989. They divorced in 1990. His second wife, Nydia Bertran, is a Buddhist employed for the Reagan campaign as a photographer.

Stone is the subject of Get Me Roger Stone, a 2017 Netflix documentary written and directed by Dylan Bank, Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme and starring Stone. Additionally, he appears in Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (2008), a documentary about Lee Atwater, and Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010), a documentary directed by Alex Gibney about the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal.

Personality and public image
The New Yorker called Stone's taste Rabelaisian. Stone has a tattoo of Nixon on his back that was inked by the Ink Money tattoo shop in Venice Beach. When asked about the tattoo, Stone said, "Women love it".