Side Note

Unsealed FBI documents detail Roger Stone’s Watergate-era dirty tricks

Stone specialized in undermining Richard Nixon’s opponents on the left.

The indispensable non-profit organization Property of the People has obtained FBI long-sealed documents fully explaining the role that longtime right-wing saboteur Roger Stone played in Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign (aka the one with all the Watergate stuff). Given that Stone, a longtime Donald Trump associate who serves as an unofficial advisor to the President, is currently facing scrutiny for his potential role helping a bucketload of Hillary Clinton campaign emails wind up on Wikileaks, this seems, uh, relevant.

Writes Emma Best for Property of the People:

The FBI documents include a list “highlights” of acts of political sabotage in which Stone was either directly involved or served as the handler for the relevant operative. In one case, Stone sent 200 Democrats invitations to a non-existent primary campaign breakfast. In another, Stone directed Democratic campaign literature intended for the black community to be sent to union workers, and literature intended for union workers to be sent to the black community. In yet another, Stone saw to it that phone lines used by a Democratic primary campaign were tampered with. This resulted in Democratic failure to contact many potential voters, while others were potential voters were inadvertently contacted “numerous times.” In still another instance, Stone made a phony donation from the Young Socialist Alliance to create and exploit divisions among Democrats.

While Stone’s activities on behalf of Nixon have been covered previously, Best’s reporting offers a fuller picture of Roger Stone’s antics than ever before. Stone, for his part, denies having committed any illegal acts in the service of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. But, well, yeah.