Roger Stone has agreed to publicly apologize for spreading false information online — but placed the blame for his falsehoods on a former friend.
The longtime Republican operative and close associate of President Donald Trump settled a $100 million lawsuit accusing him of publishing lies on the far-right Infowars website.
The defamation suit settlement, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, allows Stone to avoid paying any damages if he publishes national newspaper ads apologizing for the statements and retracts the statements online.
Guo Wengui, an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, sued Stone in March, saying the “dirty trickster” accused him of being a “turncoat criminal” who violated U.S. election law.
Stone said in a statement blasting the media that he “made the terrible mistake of relying on the representations” of fellow former Trump aide Sam Nunberg for information he used in his writings.
“I am solely responsible for fulfilling the terms of the settlement,” he added.
Nunberg, who says he once viewed Stone as a mentor, made headlines in March when he went on a cable news blitz and bragged he would not cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian election meddling investigation. He later changed his mind and testified before a grand jury.
Nunberg declined to comment.
Stone has said publicly he expects to be indicted by Mueller. He denies having any back channel information about WikiLeaks releasing hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential election.
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