An associate of Roger Stone told the FBI that he bought hundreds of bogus Facebook accounts while doing work for the longtime Republican strategist, court filings showed Tuesday.
FBI Special Agent Andrew Mitchell wrote in a newly unsealed affidavit that an unidentified assistant to Stone told investigators about the accounts during an interview in 2016.
The person told investigators that Stone “utilized the services of several individuals to post social media content to Facebook and Twitter,” and that both he and Stone “instructed these individuals about what to post.”
The individual added that he “purchased a couple hundred fake Facebook accounts as part of his work (including both new and existing accounts), and that bloggers working for Stone would try to build what looked like real Facebook accounts,” Mr. Mitchell wrote.
Facebook’s terms of service forbid users from providing false personal information or creating an account for another person without their permission, the investigator added.
Stone, President Trump’s former campaign adviser and longtime confidant, wanted to use his Facebook and Twitter accounts to push out content involving WikiLeaks, the website that released stolen Democratic Party documents during the 2016 White House race, the witness told the FBI, according to the affidavit.
He rejected the witnesses’ claim on Instagram while responding to a CNN article where the affidavit was first reported.
“This is 100% categorically false,” said Stone, adding that the individual who made the claim is a “non-credible witness” and that investigators found no supporting evidence.
The affidavit appeared in a trove of newly unsealed court filings entered in the case against Stone, who was subsequently charged in early 2019 with counts of obstruction, perjury and witness tampering related to the 2016 presidential election.
Stone was ultimately found guilty of all counts and sentenced to serve 40 months in prison. He has since begun advocating for a presidential pardon after unsuccessfully attempting to challenge his conviction.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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