Roger Stone settles lawsuit, admits to spreading lies on InfoWars

Roger Stone.
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Roger Stone, one of President Trump's longtime friends and a campaign adviser, settled a defamation suit on Monday filed by an exiled Chinese businessman who said Stone made false and misleading statements about him on Infowars, a website that peddles right-wing conspiracy theories.

Guo Wengui filed the suit in Florida this March, seeking $100 million in damages. Guo is a critic of Beijing, and has accused several politicians and businessmen in China of being corrupt. In his suit, Guo said Stone called him a "turncoat criminal who is convicted of crimes here and in China," and claimed he violated election laws by donating to Hillary Clinton. During an interview last month, Guo said Bruno Wu, a Chinese-American media tycoon, paid Stone to talk about him on InfoWars. Wu, who has been accused of being a Chinese spy by Guo, has since filed a defamation lawsuit against Guo.

As part of the settlement, Stone has to publish a retraction on social media and take out ads in several major newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, apologizing for his remarks about Guo. By doing this, Stone does not have to pay damages. The settlement describes Wu as being "the apparent source of the information" about Guo, which was passed along to Stone by Sam Nunberg, a former member of the Trump campaign.

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In a text to the Journal, Stone said he was "irresponsible" and "solely responsible for fulfilling the terms of the settlement." It's been reported that Stone is being looked at as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and this defamation suit is a completely separate issue.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.