Who is Roger Stone? Trump, Nixon ties made him political celeb

Jan. 26--GOP donors lined up to get photos with the party's front runner for governor, a congressman and a Cabinet secretary during a VIP reception at the Palm Beach County Republican Party's annual Lobsterfest fundraiser last August at Boca Raton's Polo Club.

But there was at least as much buzz out in the lobby for Roger Stone, who arrived in a seersucker suit and soon drew his own crowd of selfie-seekers and well-wishers.

Fort Lauderdale resident Stone, arrested by the FBI before dawn Friday on charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, has enjoyed celebrity status in South Florida among supporters of President Donald Trump and establishment Republicans -- groups that were once separate and distinct but have become nearly indistinguishable.

Stone, 66, has long played up his reputation as a practitioner of the political dark arts. He is, among other things, a former teen-aged dirty trickster for Richard Nixon (whose likeness is tattooed on Stone's back), a 1980s power-lobbying business partner of Paul Manafort and a figure of disputed importance in the Miami "Brooks Brothers riot" that disrupted the 2000 presidential recount.

But it is his association with Trump, whom he began urging to run for president in the 1980s, that has brought Stone his greatest celebrity and legal peril.

At Lobsterfest -- which featured future Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, and Housing and Urban Development Sec. Ben Carson -- Stone took time from interacting with fans to discuss his status as a Mueller target.

"It's not inconceivable that the special counsel could conjure up some other bogus offense in an attempt to get me to testify against the president, who I've known for 40 years. I'm not going to do that," Stone told The Palm Beach Post.

"I wouldn't rule out cooperating with (Mueller) on some other basis if I can be helpful, but I will never testify against the president," Stone said. Asked if there was anything for him to testify against Trump about, Stone replied: "Not that I know of, but they may think otherwise."

A few weeks later, Stone was back in Palm Beach County to speak to more than 700 people at a meeting of a Trump booster club called Club 45 PBC.

Stone estimated the Mueller probe could cost him $2 million in legal fees and drew big applause when he vowed: "I'm ready. I will never roll on Donald Trump. Michael Cohen I am not."

Stone began encouraging a Trump presidential bid more than three decades ago, succeeding in persuading the celebrity mogul to make a 1987 trip to New Hampshire, where Trump delivered a speech calling for a "tough, smart cookie" in the White House who could stop the U.S. from being "pushed around."

Stone was also there when Trump flirted with a 2000 presidential run as a third-party supporter of abortion rights, gun control and single-payer health care. In 2011, Stone helped Trump rebrand himself as a tea party conservative as he considered and ultimately passed up a 2012 GOP bid for the White House.

When Trump finally launched an actual presidential campaign, Stone was an official part of it for only a short time. In the summer of 2015, he lost a power struggle with Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager at the time, and either quit or was fired.

But Stone remained a visible supporter of Trump who, according to Mueller's indictment, "maintained regular contact" with the campaign, including discussions about potential future releases of documents stolen by Russian hackers from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign. Stone, who asserted his innocence Friday, has repeatedly said he did not have any inside information about the release of hacked documents during the 2016 campaign.

In March 2017, when he appeared in Boca Raton to promote a book about the 2016 campaign, Stone acknowledged the bad boy image he had cultivated for decades, but said he would never collude with Russia.

"I am of course no stranger to the world of hardball politics," Stone said. "But treason -- treason is a step too far."

Before Friday's drama, Stone was scheduled to appear in Boca Raton next month at a $58-a-head Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club luncheon.

Club President Howard Appell said he wasn't immediately sure if Friday's arrest would scuttle the Feb. 13 event.

"We are waiting to see what unfolds as far as what he's able to do," said Appell, who said about 100 tickets were initially available for the lunch. "Our ticket sales were running ahead of schedule. He's usually a big draw without all of this. We'll probably be sold out on this one if he's able to do it."

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