# Roger Stone Veteran Republican political operative, self-described "dirty trickster," and longtime Trump adviser. Convicted for his role as the link between the Trump campaign and [[WikiLeaks]] during the 2016 election. ## Background - Career political operative since the Nixon era (has a Nixon tattoo on his back) - Co-founded Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly lobbying firm with [[Paul Manafort]] in the 1980s - Has known Trump since the 1980s; urged him to run for president multiple times - Specializes in opposition research, ratfucking, and media manipulation ## WikiLeaks Connection (2016) - **Summer 2016**: Communicated with **[[Guccifer 2.0]]** (later identified as GRU — Russian military intelligence) - Claimed publicly to have a back-channel to [[Julian Assange]] / WikiLeaks - **August 2016**: Tweeted **"Trust me, it will soon be Podesta's time in the barrel"** — weeks before WikiLeaks released the stolen Podesta emails - Coordinated with [[Steve Bannon]] and other campaign officials about anticipated WikiLeaks releases - Testified he never told Trump about WikiLeaks; phone records and witness testimony contradicted this ## Conviction and Pardon - Arrested January 2019 in dramatic pre-dawn FBI raid - **November 2019**: Convicted on seven counts — obstruction, witness tampering, lying to Congress - Sentenced to 40 months - **July 2020**: Sentence commuted by Trump (days before Stone would have reported to prison) - **December 2020**: Full pardon from Trump ## Significance Stone is the connective tissue between the old-school Republican dirty tricks tradition and the Trump-[[Russia]] operation. His decades-long partnership with [[Paul Manafort]], his communication with Russian intelligence fronts, and his role as WikiLeaks intermediary placed him at the intersection of the campaign's most compromising Russia threads. His go-between on WikiLeaks' release plans in August 2016 was the conspiracy author [[Jerome Corsi]], who later became "Person 1" in Stone's indictment. His protégé [[Michael Caputo]], who had done political work in 1990s Russia, joined him in a May 2016 meeting with a Russian national offering dirt on Clinton. ## Notable Quotes - [[Roger Stone - Podesta's time in the barrel]] — tweet, August 2016. The apparent-foreknowledge receipt at the center of the Trump-campaign-to-WikiLeaks question. - [[Roger Stone - admit nothing deny everything]] — "Stone's Rules." The crisis-management creed: attack, never defend; counterattack the accuser. - [[Roger Stone - hate is a stronger motivator than love]] — *Get Me Roger Stone*, 2017. The affective premise beneath the tactics. - [[Roger Stone - politics is about dividing people]] — *Get Me Roger Stone*, 2017. Division-as-strategy: split the electorate and take 51 percent.