Roger Stone Asks Supporters for Money to Sue Clinton Citing Durham Filing

by Jason Lemon

Political consultant Roger Stone, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, is attempting to raise “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from his followers in an effort to sue former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Stone was convicted in November 2019 for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House inquiry into possible Trump collusion with Russia. In February 2020, he was sentenced to 40 months in prison. However, he was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 before he began serving his sentence.

Special counsel John Durham, who was appointed during the Trump administration, is currently investigating the origins of the investigation into Russia’s potential connections to Trump. In a court motion last week, Durham laid out allegations that an attorney who had worked for Clinton paid tech companies and researchers “to mine Internet data to establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia.”

Trump and his allies have jumped on the filing to argue that the entire Russia investigation was launched illegally and unfairly. On Thursday evening, Stone shared a post with his Telegram followers claiming that Durham’s latest motion demonstrates his conviction was a “fraud.”

“Now that we know that President Trump WAS spied on and the entire Russian collusion accusations were a fraud, it is clear that my conviction for lying to Congress to cover up non-existent Russian collusion was also a fraud. Now, with my civil rights violated, I can FINALLY sue Hillary Clinton and those who sought to destroy me and my family,” Stone wrote to his supporters.

“This lawsuit will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars I do not have. Will you help me SUE THE BASTARDS by making a contribution,” he added, linking to a website where followers could donate money.

Whether Stone will actually move forward with the lawsuit remains to be seen. He previously threatened in December 2020 to sue the Department of Justice and special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated allegations of collusion between the former president and Russia.NEWSWEEK SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS >

Trump released a statement on Saturday cheering the Durham motion and suggesting that some Clinton campaign staffers deserved the death penalty.

“This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution. In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death,” Trump said. “In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.”

Durham, for his part, appeared to push back against the assessment from Trump and his right-wing allies. “If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the government’s motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the government’s inclusion of this information,” he said in a Thursday court filing.

Clinton dismissed the response from Trump and right-wing media.

“We can’t get distracted, whether it’s by the new culture war nonsense or some right-wing lie on Fox or Facebook,” she said during a speech at the New York State Democratic Convention.

“They’ve been coming after me again lately, in case you might have noticed. It’s funny, the more trouble Trump gets into, the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get,” she said.