The rise and fall of the ‘trysexual’ dirty trickster Roger Stone

A guilty verdict Friday brought an abrupt end to the decades-long career of Roger Stone, a smooth-talking agent provocateur and self-proclaimed dirty trickster who thrived in the shadier margins of U.S. politics.

Growing up in Lewisboro, New York, to a blue-collar Catholic family, Roger Jason Stone Jr.’s zeal for the rough and tumble of political life was apparent from a young age.

In elementary school he advocated for John F. Kennedy telling kids in the cafeteria line that Nixon would make them attend extra classes on a Saturday if he won the 1960 election.

When he was a junior and vice president of student government in high school Stone manipulated the ouster of the president so he could take over.

‘I built alliances and put all my serious challengers on my ticket,’ he would brag to the New York Times decades later.

‘I recruited the most unpopular guy in the school to run against me. You think that’s mean? No, it’s smart.’

Roger Stone was found guilty of obstructing justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress bringing his decades-long career to an end 

He worked for Richard Nixon, becoming so enthralled with the president that Stone would later have Nixon's face tattooed on his back

He worked for Richard Nixon, becoming so enthralled with the president that Stone would later have Nixon’s face tattooed on his back

Stone was hired as an adviser when Trump finally launched a bid for the White House nearly two decades later after Stone first suggested he run. Stone was pushed out in a power struggle

Stone was hired as an adviser when Trump finally launched a bid for the White House nearly two decades later after Stone first suggested he run. Stone was pushed out in a power struggle

Stone entered the political arena for real in 1972 when he ditched his studies at George Washington University, this time to support Nixon in his re-election campaign – not to be the only time he shifted allegiances without a qualm.

In one of his first ‘dirty tricks’ he contributed $135 to one of Nixon’s Republican rivals in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance – then slipped the receipt to a journalist.

When Nixon triumphed the braggadocios young aide was rewarded was a job on the administration. Perhaps unintentionally, his association with student dirty tricks also gained him an association with the ‘ratf***ers,’ the dirty operative beloved of Nixon.

Stone himself denied being one of them, saying they were from the University of Southern California, but the nickname was attached to him for life.

The 37th President of the United States left a lasting impression on Stone: the longtime GOP operative would later have Nixon’s face tattooed on his back.

‘Women love it,’ he told the New Yorker. ‘The reason I’m a Nixonite is because of his indestructibility and resilience.

Nixon left another legacy on Stone: Watergate.

During congressional hearings into the scandal in 1973 it emerged Stone had recruited a spy to infiltrate the campaigns of several of Nixon’s Democratic rivals.

He was fired from his job with then-Senator Bob Dole but his reputation for the dark political arts was intact.

Stone reunited with Dole for his 1996 presidential campaign but resigned when The National Enquirer revealed he placed ads on a swingers website seeking sex partners for himself and his second wife Nydia Bertran Stone.

He later referred to himself in an interview with the New Yorker, partly conducted in a swingers club, as ‘a libertarian and a libertine’and a ‘trysexual – I’ve tried everything’. 

The couple have more recently apparently found religion, bringing a pastor in robes to the trial with them and being seen at Sunday mass.

The former advisor to President Donald Trump has a tattoo with Nixon's face on his upper back, which he showed off for a Netflix special

The former advisor to President Donald Trump has a tattoo with Nixon’s face on his upper back, which he showed off for a Netflix special 

In 1996 The National Enquirer revealed Stone placed ads on a swingers website seeking sex partners for himself and his second wife Nydia Bertran Stone

In 1996 The National Enquirer revealed Stone placed ads on a swingers website seeking sex partners for himself and his second wife Nydia Bertran Stone

Stone adopted President Nixon's iconic V for victory symbol, often posing with it

Stone adopted President Nixon’s iconic V for victory symbol, often posing with it 

Stone, pictured at his office in Florida, is a veteran Republican political operative after entering politics in 1972

Stone, pictured at his office in Florida, is a veteran Republican political operative after entering politics in 1972

Stone went on to work for several more presidential campaigns: those of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and, eventually, his longtime friend Donald Trump, who had hired Stone to lobby for his casino businesses in the 1990s.

He likewise forged a longtime bond with the disgraced former Trump campaign chairman and now federal prison inmate Paul Manafort after the pair co-founded one of DC earliest ‘mega-lobbying’ firms, Black, Manafort & Stone, in 1980.

Along the way he picked up a reputation for dark arts and darker acts, a penchant for expensive tailoring and a rolodex of clients from the top of the Republican party and further afield – including Donald Trump’s struggling casino business, a connection which was to prove key to his future.

Stone first suggested Trump run for president in early 1998, and even worked out of Trump Tower for a while to help him. 

He was hired as an adviser when his old ally finally launched a bid for the White House nearly two decades later.

 But he was pushed out in a power struggle which left him on the outside looking in – and phoning Trump with his advice and also apparently bragging of his connections to WikiLeaks.

Outside the campaign he accused Ted Cruz of having had affairs with five women; Cruz shot back that he was a ‘ratf***er’ and claimed he was ‘pulling the strings on Donald Trump.’

But inside Trump Tower, there was a different, and for Stone sadder, picture emerging. 

Stone went on to work for several more presidential campaigns including Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and his longtime friend Donald Trump

Stone went on to work for several more presidential campaigns including Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and his longtime friend Donald Trump

Roger Jason Stone Jr grew up in Lewisboro, New York, to a blue-collar Catholic family and where his zeal for politics was apparent from a young age (pictured with Paul Manafort and Lee Atwater)

Roger Jason Stone Jr grew up in Lewisboro, New York, to a blue-collar Catholic family and where his zeal for politics was apparent from a young age (pictured with Paul Manafort and Lee Atwater)

Senior Campaign figures hinted that the silver-haired Svengali’s influence was waning by the time WikiLeaks threw the 2016 Presidential race into turmoil.

Rick Gates said Stone still had access to senior Trump figures despite having left his position but the relationship had become ‘tense.’

And Steve Bannon admitted in his testimony that he derived enjoyment from ‘heckling’ Stone when his big Julian Assange predictions fell flat.

In the past, a Republican presidency had been a sure-fire payday for Stone but this time round his association with Trump was toxic and expensive.

He found work with InfoWars, an apt home for a man who had pushed conspiracy theories for decades, and a regular place on the speaking circuit.

But the Mueller inquiry brought massive legal bills – and even then expensive legal counsel did not stop him committing a massive blunder in 2017: lying to Congress.

Despite that Stone was predicting right up until January of this year that he would evade Robert Mueller’s prosecutors, sneering in an exclusive DailyMail.com interview: ‘They got nothing.’

Three weeks later he found himself in handcuffs when rifle-wielding FBI agents surrounded his Fort Lauderdale, Florida home in the middle of the night to take him into custody.

In the past, a Republican presidency had been a sure-fire payday for Stone but this time round his association with Trump was toxic and expensive

In the past, a Republican presidency had been a sure-fire payday for Stone but this time round his association with Trump was toxic and expensive

Stone's home was raided in the early hours of the morning this year and he was taken into custody

Stone’s home was raided in the early hours of the morning this year and he was taken into custody 

Then, on the steps of the federal courthouse in Broward County, Stone enjoyed perhaps his last hurrah, emerging defiant and unbowed to deliver a scathing diatribe about the Mueller ‘witch-hunt’ while flashing Nixon’s trademark victory signs.

When he followed that up by peddling ‘Roger Stone did nothing wrong’ t-shirts, launching a media tour and posting a mocked-up Instagram image of Judge Amy Berman Jackson in rifle crosshairs, enough was enough.

Berman Jackson responded by slapping Stone with a gag order banning him from speaking about his case in the press or via social media.

When it was their turn to address the trial, defense attorneys chose to play audio of Stone speaking before Congress in 2017 rather than have jurors hear from the man himself.

It was perhaps tacit acceptance that the world had heard quite enough already from Watergate survivor Roger Stone and his vindictive brand of no-holds-barred politics.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk