Thread by @AliAdair22

🌎Donald Trump—🌪️Roger Stone—🔥Paul Manafort—🌬️Roy Cohn
There are so many connections between these four gentlemen, but the common thread between them all appears to be Roger Stone.

washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/…

🔪But Stone’s rules: “Attack, attack, attack—never defend” and “Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack.” This “advice” came via renowned attorney Roy Cohn, who represented Donald Trump late in Cohn’s life.

vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/d…

🌬️Cohn’s "original" 3-dimensional strategy via @vanityfair article: 1. Never settle, never surrender. 2. Counter-attack, counter-sue immediately. 3. No matter what happens, no matter how deeply into the muck you get, claim victory and never admit defeat.”

🍊Sound familiar?

👨‍🎓Stone was a good Cohn student. But way before he met Cohn, Roger Stone fixed his first grade election; a mock election for president: John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon.

👱‍♂️He was for Kennedy because he liked his hair better.

newyorker.com/magazine/2008/…

🏫But in order to win, he told his classmates that Nixon would force them to go to school on Saturdays.

🙌Kennedy won.

💬"For the first time ever, I understood the value of disinformation." Roger Stone recounted.

🤥Of course, I've never practiced it since then," Stone said in the 2017 Netflix documentary GET ME ROGER STONE.

💼More on Cohn:

🕵️‍♂️1972—Pete McCloskey/Richard Nixon🕵️‍♂️

🔍Part 1: Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey was running against Richard Nixon (Roger Stone has a tattoo of him on his back, enough said) for the Republican nomination pro-peace/anti-Vietnam War platform.

🔍Under a pseudonym, Roger Stone made contributions in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance to McCloskey’s campaign, then sent the evidence to a #NewHampshire newspapers to prove that McCloskey was a left-wing plant.

🔍McCloskey lost the primary in #NewHampshire & dropped out of the race afterwards.

🔍Part 2: Roger Stone hired someone w/ the pseudonym Sedan Chair II to infiltrate George McGovern’s campaign. McGovern was the #Democratic candidate running against Nixon in the general election.

🔎[Nixon won in a landslide with an 570-17 Electoral vote. The Watergate break-in occurred in the June before the election, not giving the @washingtonpost enough time to expose all the corruption and Nixon did not resign until August 8, 1974.]

🔍When Stone’s involvement was exposed in the Watergate hearings after
Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist Jack Anderson publicly identified Stone as a Nixon 'dirty trickster,' Stone was fired by Bob Dole. (Dole campaigning in 1974.)

🕵️‍♂️1976 & 1980—Reagan years🕵️‍♂️

🔍Stone worked for Ronald Reagan is his unsuccessful bid for president in 1976 as the national youth director. In 1980, he was the political director for the Northeast.

🔍Per the following article in Vox, he specialized in trying to convince working class voters who had traditionally supported Democrats to vote for Reagan instead.

vox.com/2018/7/16/1714…

🕵️‍♂️1980s: Black, Manafort and Stone: Founded 1980, then ▶️Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly/Atwater🕵️‍♂️

🔍Roger Stone rebounded from the Dole firing by starting a consulting business with partners Charlie Black and Paul Manafort.

Via @washingtonpost Photo by: Harry Naltchayan

🔍Manafort suggested they be lobbyists as well because it “paid well.” (Foreshadowing his extravagent spending.) Clients included Johnson and Johnson, Bethlehem Steel, the Tobacco Institute, the investment banking firm Salomon Brothers, and briefly Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

🔍In addition, Black and Stone, along with GOP operative John "Terry" Dolan founded the National Conservative Political Action Committee, (NCPAC) known as "Nick-Pack", which bombarded congressional candidates with negative political ads.

WP: “The hyperaggressive group was one of the first to bundle contributions to circumvent limits on individual campaign contributions & it was a precursor to the rise of super PACs, which candidate Trump lambasted 4 decades later as prime examples of Washington's swamp problem.”

🔍In 1986, when Stone was at his peak professionally, the Post did a profile on him, his wife Bitsey, his dog Milhouse, his $450,000/yr salary, his two homes, his hot tub, his $800 designer zoot suits, his Patek Phillipe watch, felt hats & his chauffeur-driven Mercedes & Jaguar.

🔍But the political consulting firm was also controversial: they also represented brutal foreign dictators such as the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos, Somalia’s Mohamed Siad Barre, Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko —a precursor of Manafort’s method of making a living from 2003 to 2017.

🔗Source articles:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black,_Ma…

vox.com/2018/7/16/1714…

🔍Then this: When Manafort testified in front of Congress about obtaining $31 million in federal subsidies for a low-income Seabrook, NJ housing project, he balked when a Congressman accused him of “influence peddling” & replied with a smirk.

nytimes.com/1989/06/21/us/…

🔍“We played by the rules. You might call it influence-peddling. “I call it lobbying.”

abcnews.go.com/Politics/video…

🔍When Stone was working for Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, Reagan's adviser Michael Deaver, gave Stone a rolodex of contacts in New York.

🔥One name interested him: Roy Cohn.

🔥He met Cohn immediately. Eventually, Cohn introduced him to Donald Trump. (more on that later)

🔍The partners had great success, but sold the company in 1991 to a public relations firm Burson-Marsteller. The partners stayed on board, but Stone left in the mid-nineties and Manafort left in 1996 to start his own company.

mysanantonio.com/news/article/H…

🕵️‍♂️1980—Willie Horton Ad🕵️‍♂️

🔍This is probably the most infamous political attack ad ever aired. A PAC not affiliated with the Bush campaign ran the ad and it’s almost irrefutable that the ad turned the tide in the election and helped George H.W. Bush defeat Michael Dukakis.

🔍The ad alleged that Willie Horton committed kidnapping, assault with a knife and rape while on a weekend furlough granted by Dukakis, then Governor of #Massachusetts. Dukakis did not start the furlough program, but did support it.

🔍Of course Stone denied his involvement in the ad—but this time there is some credibility to his denial because in Jane Mayer's 2012 @newyorker article, she mainly attributed the ad to media consultant Larry McCarthy, Roger Ailes, the former CEO & pres of Fox News & Lee Atwater.

🔍Stone recounted the events to Mayer (first recounted in BOOGIE MAN, a documentary film about Lee Atwater), saying that Atwater locked the door and showed him the ad that he was planning to run with independent money.

newyorker.com/magazine/2012/…

🔍Stone exclaimed “That’s a huge mistake. You and George Bush will wear that to your grave. It’s a racist ad! You’re already winning this issue! It’s working for you! You’re stepping over a line & you’re gonna regret it.’

🔥According to Stone, Atwater replied, “Y’all a pussy.”

🕵️‍♂️1986—Geraldine Ferraro🕵️‍♂️

🔍According to @washmonthly, "dirt" was provided on Walter Mondale’s running mate Geraldine Ferraro by both Stone & Roy Cohn, when they challenged Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush for President/VP in 1984.

washingtonmonthly.com/2018/04/19/ins…

🔍Within days after the announcement of her candidacy, Ferraro was sunk as her husband, who ran a real estate company (where she was listed as Sec'y/Treas) in Little Italy, Soho, Chinatown did not wish to make his tax returns public. (Red flag!🔻▶️🍊)

nydailynews.com/new-york/polit…

🔍The "dirt" dripped out slowly...

⚡️Her husband, John Zaccaro, had used money from an elderly woman's estate while acting as her conservator...

⚡️Underpaid taxes...

⚡️One of Zaccaro's tenants was a pornographer...

⚡️Ferraro's parents been indicted for numbers running upstate

🔍And more.

⚡️Mondale/Ferraro only got 13 electoral votes and Roger Stone's boss, Ronald Reagan, won in a landslide.

🕵️‍♂️1996—Sex Scandal🕵️‍♂️
🔍A National Enquirer article came out in 1996, showing pictures of an ad Roger Stone and his wife Nydia (he divorced Bitsie in 1990) took out ads in a magazine called Local Swing Fever and on a Web site describing themselves as “experienced swingers.”

🔍The Stone couple was seeking the company of other swingers. The Enquirer also alleged that Stone and his wife frequented a DC sex club called The Capitol Couple. At the time, Stone issued a blanket denial—which he later claimed was because his grandparents were still alive.

🔍Stone's credibility was ruined.

🔥David Pecker—unfortunately for Stone—did not become CEO of the National Enquirer until 1999.

🕵️‍♂️2000: Pat Buchanan🕵️‍♂️

🔍But the Republicans changed their tune in 2000 when they wanted George W. Bush to win. Stone studied Ross Perot’s success (in 1992 he got 19 million votes; in 1996 he received 8 million votes but 0 electoral votes both times).

🔍During the 1980 election, Stone recounted that Roy Cohn "arranged" for John B. Anderson to get the nomination of the Liberal Party—intending to split Ronald Reagan's opposition in New York. (Guess who came to dinner? Jill Stein)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Sto…

nbcnews.com/news/world/gue…

🔍Stone delivered a suitcase of money to an attorney connected to the party.

👨‍🎓He learned from that experience.

🎉For George W. Bush to win in 2000, he wanted to obliterate the 3rd party.

☑️He used both Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump to accomplish this goal.

🔍First, Roger Stone urged Pat Buchanan to run with with the Reform Party.

☑️Then he convinced Donald Trump to switch to the Reform Party in 1999 and run against Pat Buchanan.

☑️Then Trump trashed Buchanan.

🔍During the primary, Trump called Buchanan a “Hitler lover,” an “anti-Semite” & the candidate of the ''really staunch right wacko vote.''

nytimes.com/1999/10/25/us/…

🔍Trump also said “he doesn’t like the blacks, he doesn’t like the gays. It’s just incredible that anybody could embrace this guy."

🔍Stone claimed to be present (pic 👆) when he alleges Roy Cohn helped Trump's sister Maryanne Trump Barry get an appointment to the federal bench.

🔍Stone told @vanityfair that Barry wanted to get the job on her own, but when another candidate was in play, Cohn approached Attorney General Ed Meese for help.

🔍Barry admitted to biographer Gwenda Blair that her brother helped her get the post, but of course Trump denied it.

🔍Barry was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on September 14, 1983, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, confirmed by the United States Senate on October 6, 1983 & received her commission the next day.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryanne_…

🔍Back to Pat Buchanan. Roger Stone said he had “no recollection” of how the Pat Buchanan illegitimate baby story—allegedly born in the 1960s—started during the 2000 campaign.

villagevoice.com/2004/05/11/the…

🔍But the Village Voice investigation discredited that denial, discovering that Stone peddled it to reporters early in the 2000 campaign—then let it go—but just the whiff of the scandal hurt Buchanan, who lost badly, effectively destroying the Reform Party in the U.S.

🔍@villagevoice: Stone was rewarded for his subterranean 2000 efforts with an appointment to the Department of Interior transition team, which he parlayed into a multimillion dollar business as an Indian gaming consultant (see Voice, April 19).

archive.li/oVTf4

🔍Stone's plan worked.

🍊Trump only qualified for the presidential primary ticket in Michigan & California for the Reform Party and both contests occurred after he withdrew in February 2000. Trump won both states but Buchanan wasn't on the tickets there.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Tr…

🔍But Roger Stone accomplished his goal.

🔥Buchanan was weakened by Trump which in turn weakened the entire Reform Party. Buchanan got less than ½ million votes in the General Election—way less than the 19 and 8 million votes Ross Perot received in 1992 & 1996.

🔍This is 10 mins of Trump campaigning in 2000 at the Cuban American National Foundation in Cuba.

👋Trump had two words for Fidel Castro: "Adiós Amigo!" and joked about doing business in Cuba, but wanted Castro gone first.

streamable.com/a49nv

🔍Results of the 2000 election:

▶️Ralph Nader got 2,882,955 votes;
▶️Pat Buchanan got 448,895 votes;
▶️Al Gore had 543,895 more votes than George Bush

🍾But Bush still won the electoral vote, after much controversy—especially with the recount in #Florida.

🕵️‍♂️2000: Brooks Brothers riot🕵️‍♂️
🔍Roger Stone was actually present for a staged demonstration at a meeting of election canvassers in Miami-Dade, #Florida in 2000. Fake protesters tried to stop the recount, pounding on the doors, getting violent—eventually succeeding in stopping it

🔍Hundreds of paid GOP operatives including Congressional staffers and lawyers protested the state’s recounts—with at least 6 being on the payroll of George W. Bush’s recount committee. Others were identified as GOP staffers and went on to work in the Bush administration.

Rachael Maddow:
▶️1—Tom Pyle, former Tom DeLay (R-TX) staffer
▶️2—Garry Malphrus, who became deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Bush administration
▶️3—Rory Cooper, former staffer for the National GOP Congressional Comm

▶️4—Kevin Smith, former GOP House aide
▶️5—Steven Brophy, former GOP Senate aide to Senators Fred Thompson
▶️6—Matt Schlapp, former House aide who became the White House political director during the Bush administration
▶️7—Roger Morse, former House aide who became a lobbyist

▶️8—Duane Gibson, Don Young aide on the House Resources Committee who worked for Ted Stevens, then became a lobbyist associated with Jack Abramoff
▶️9—Chuck Royal, legislative assistant to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
▶️10—Layna McConkey Peltier, former Senate and House aide...etc.

🔍It was called the Brooks Brothers riot because the “protesters” were all wearing business suits and were described as “50-year-old white lawyers with cell phones and Hermès ties.”

▶️Descriptions above from wikipedia site below 👇

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Br…

🔍Recruited by James Baker III, Stone claimed to run the riot from a Winnebago parked near the election office. “I set up my command center there. I had walkie-talkies and cell phones, and I was in touch with our people in the building.

🔍Our whole idea was to shut the recount down. That was why we were there. We had the frequency to the Democrats’ walkie-talkies and were listening to their communications, but they were so disorganized that we didn’t learn much that was useful.” (via the @NewYorker posted above)

🔍There was question whether Stone made the story up, but Jake Tapper’s book “Down & Dirty” confirms he was sighted in the Winnebago, while crediting Brad Blakeman for the organizing effort.

washingtonpost.com/history/2018/1…

🕵️‍♂️2004: Al Sharpton🕵️‍♂️

🔍Reverand Al Sharpton ran for President in 2004 as a #Democrat. Roger Stone helped him. “Helping” Sharpton, but yet he said this: “Frankly, there has not been a candidate with this much charisma since Ronald Reagan. He is a natural talent...

🗣️Roger Stone (cont'd): Who else could do the funky chicken on television and get away with it? I don't share his politics. Let's be very clear, if you check the F.E.C. records you will see I am supporting George W. Bush. I am a Reagan Republican.''

🔍But in order for Bush to win, he had to beat the best #Democratic candidate—so Stone & Sharpton had that in common. The top Democrat at the time was Howard Dean, then Governor of #Vermont.

🔍Stone advised Sharpton to hire Charles Halloran as his national campaign manager, who was a former Bill Clinton aide.

💰💳He also helped Sharpton raise money, helping him with a federal funding application and lending him his credit card as necessary.

thedailybeast.com/the-man-behind…

🔍Sharpton confronted Dean about the lack of African Americans in his cabinet and Stone orchestrated an attack on Dean for his comment that he wanted “to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.”

villagevoice.com/2004/01/27/sle…

nytimes.com/2004/01/25/us/…

🔍In the end, Roger Stone's shenanigans didn't end Howard Dean's 2004 candidacy, but they might've.

📈Dean was ahead in the polls, but lost in the Iowa caucuses. When he gave his "concession" speech, he did this:

😱It's called the "Scream Speech."

🕵️‍♂️2004: Dan Rather🕵️‍♂️

🔍The Killian Documents Controversy AKA Memogate AKA Rathergate

▶️In September 2004, 60 Minutes II aired a Dan Rather story which called into question George W. Bush’s Teas Air National Guard records from 1972-73.

texasmonthly.com/politics/truth…

🔍CBS failed to authenticate four of these documents which included criticisms from Bush’s commander (Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, criticisms of Bush’s service in the Guard in the 1970s. Rather said the documents were taken from Killian’s personal files.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_d…

📃CBS at first defended the documents, but many disputed the authenticity of the documents—including typewriter and typography experts and they have never been authenticated by forensic document examiners.

🔥After two weeks, CBS fired producer Mary Mapes, asked several senior news executives to resign and apologized to viewers.

💣Burkett admitted later that a woman who called herself Lucy Ramirez was the source of the documents.

dailykos.com/stories/2005/1…

🔍Some have speculated that Lucy Ramirez was in fact Roger Stone’s Cuban wife Nydia Stone. (Note: Daily Kos is extreme left wing source)

💥Rather retired as CBS anchorman in March 2005 after 24 years and left CBS completely in June of 2006.

🔍He subsequently sued CBS for $70 million for making him a “scapegoat” on Killian but the lawsuit was dismissed.

😬Rather defends the story to this day and maintains that the networks were “very uncomfortable” with running the story.

abcnews.go.com/Business/story…

🔍Did Roger Stone set Dan Rather up? Then-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee & former #Virginia Governor, Terry McAuliffe, denied #DNC involvement, but suspected that Karl Rove and Roger Stone might have set Rather up.

🙈🙉🙊Stone & Rove both denied any involvement.

🔚End of Part One.

🔜Part Two