Roger Stone: I’m innocent – and I wouldn’t take a deal if Mueller offered one

To Fort Lauderdale, in Florida, to meet Roger Stone, known as ‘the most dangerous man in politics’ to friend and foe alike. He arrives for lunch looking deeply tanned, in a white button-down shirt and blue blazer. For Stone, such details are not trivial. He hands Cockburn his new book, Stone’s Rules, a manual on how to ‘move like a pro’ in politics and in life. For both, you need to dress well. Stone’s Rule Number 36, in clothing ‘brown is the color of shit’; Rule #18, ‘White shirt + tan face = confidence’. This was how Kennedy beat Nixon in their campaign debate in 1960, in case anyone forgets that the sartorial is political. Also: Never hire a man with scuffed shoes.

At the age of 19, Stone was in the Nixon White House, beginning his notorious career as a political dirty trickster. He writes that ‘Politics ain’t beanbag; it is not for the faint of heart’. And in politics, Rule #11, ‘To win you must do everything’. For Lyndon Johnson, for example, Stone believes ‘everything’ meant the murder of John F. Kennedy. For Roger Stone, did this include conspiring with Russia to throw the 2016 election to Donald Trump? Stone denies it. He’s accused of being the link between Julian Assange, Assange’s organization, WikiLeaks, and the Trump campaign. WikiLeaks published emails stolen by Kremlin hackers from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. But Stone says: ‘I never had any communication with Assange. There isn’t a piece of paper, no email, no texts. It just isn’t there.’