Roger Stone has worked in Washington D.C. since the Nixon presidency. Since then, he has helped run many presidential campaigns. Stone’s claim to fame has been his long history of suspected meddling and influencing of American politics. Recently, he was accused of aiding the Russian Government with election manipulation while advising the Trump Campaign. He was investigated by the Special Council, which was created to investigate the 2016 Election’s mysterious Russian connection.

In 1972, Stone joined the Committee to Re-elect the President for Nixon. He was still in college at the time and somehow managed to get the $550 a month job. His role in the Nixon campaign was quite limited. He did minuscule tasks, such as watching dogs of campaign officials. The one notable event of his career with Nixon was when one of the bulgars from the Watergate break-in called from jail to a campaign advisor’s house he was watching.

In August 2015, Stone left the Trump campaign. He had a role on the side lines for the rest of the election; this included passing along information and publicly supporting Trump. It wasn’t until the release of emails from Hillary Clinton that Stone played a more serious hand in the 2016 election. Prior to the release of the emails in October, Stone gave a statement saying that “I actually have communicated with [the head of Organization 1]. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation, but there’s no telling what the October surprise may be.” Stone had communication with Julian Assange, who is referred to as head of Organization 1. Organization 1 also refers to Wikileaks, the site that received thousands of stolen emails and documents during the 2016 election from Russian hackers. Stone used the information that he obtained from these stolen emails as ammunition against the Clinton Campaign.

After the conclusion of the 2019 election the F.B.I., U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence started a thorough investigation into the Russian involvement into the 2016 election. Roger Stone was one of the first players in the Trump Campaign to be suspected of having involvement with the Russian interference due to his various interviews on TV and radio about receiving stolen documents. Stone made attempts to derail the investigation. The indictment states he “Made multiple false statements to HPSCI about his interactions regarding Organization 1, and falsely denied possessing records that contained evidence of these interactions; and attempted to persuade a witness to provide false testimony to and withhold pertinent information from the Investigations”.  

Stone’s apartment in Harlem and his recording studio in Florida were raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Agents found a substantial amount of information pertaining to the illegal release of documents and emails. Roger Stone is yet to be convicted of any crimes by the investigative teams. The indictment lists a total of seven counts: one is for the obstruction of an investigation, five counts for false statements, and a final count for witness tampering.

When the conviction is handed down there could be a chance that President Trump could issue a presidential pardon. We’ve seen these actions in the past with the pardons of Sheriff Arpaio and Dinesh D’souza, who committed illegal campaign contributions. While a pardon could be a possibility, the severity of Stone’s crimes could also appear suspicious and may damage Trump’s legitimacy as a President. Much of Roger Stone’s released Clinton documents greatly aided the Trump Campaign. The conviction will most likely be handed down later this year. Stone has already pleaded not guilty.