Ultimately, politics was a game Roger Stone loved more than almost anyone. "Politics with me isn't theatre. It's performance art. Sometimes, for its own sake," he said in 2007. A forthright self-promoter, Mr Stone crafted an image with a massive collection of expensive suits hand-tailored for his body-builder frame, joining them with French cuffs and perfectly knotted silk ties. His shoes always shine, as does his hair - for years dyed blonde until, more recently, ceding way to a perfect white mane. Well-known for his political antics and hard ball tactics, Mr Stone has revelled in being a Washington insider dating back to Richard Nixon's administration. With his self-professed political dirty tricks and the tattoo of Nixon on his back, he has long lurked in the shadows of Donald Trump's world and was instrumental in guiding him on his first steps to the White House. Stone was only officially on Donald Trump's presidential election campaign for a few months, but would spin reporters, peddle conspiracies and, according to prosecutors, collaborate with WikiLeaks to release damaging information about Hillary Clinton in the final stretch of the 2016 campaign. He was arrested on Friday for lying to investigators and trying to tamper with a witness. He began his career volunteering for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater when he was just 14. Eight years later, in 1972, he quit university to enlist in the reelection effort for President Nixon. He made his mark by planting a spy on the campaign of a Nixon rival, who became the candidate's driver and stole copies of internal documents for the Republicans. He also faked a donation from a "socialist" group to another Nixon rival, and leaked it to the media to smear the rival as an extreme leftist. Since then, he has helped candidates from Ronald Reagan to Mr Trump craft their messages, fend off bad news, and crush foes. He became known for a series of political maxims, the most famous of which were: "Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack," and "Attack, attack, attack - never defend." Roger Stone, as a volunteer adviser with the Bob Dole presidential campaign and onetime campaign chairman in 1987 Credit: AP He also embraced deeply a key lesson from the 1972 campaign: that Republicans had to appeal to a base of white, middle class suburban and rural voters. In his own telling, he was at the centre of an unruly demonstration during the 2000 presidential recount in Florida that pressured officials to halt the tally and helped give the White House to Republican George W. Bush. He also claimed to have a hand in uncovering a prostitution scandal that helped bring down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2008. His well-cultivated image as a somewhat mad master manipulator earned him a documentary, the exuberant, well-regarded "Get Me Roger Stone" released in 2017. Critics claim he has heavily burnished his role in crucial events - his candidates have lost as often as won. But Mr Trump took him seriously. They met in 1979 in the offices of legendary mob lawyer Roy Cohn, who schooled Mr Stone in New York's hardball politics and who also worked for Mr Trump's real estate-developer father. Longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone arrives to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington in September 2017 Credit: AP A year later, Mr Stone joined with lawyer Paul Manafort - who became Trump's campaign chair in 2016 - to form a Republican legal and political consultancy. When Mr Trump mulled running for the White House in 2000, he called on Mr Stone for advice. And when he finally did run in 2015, Mr Stone was one of the first on board. He later left amid reports of infighting but continued communicating with Mr Trump on occasion and stayed plugged into the circle of advisers - both formal and informal - who worked with and around the president. He got banned from cable news channels for threatening a host, was accused of peddling false stories about Sen. Ted Cruz to the tabloids and cultivated support for Mr Trump among the fringes of the conservative online movement, including Alex Jones' InfoWars. Stone had predicted his own arrest for months, trying to raise money for his defence online while making sure to stay in MrTrump's good graces, perhaps with an eye on a presidential pardon down the road. At a glance | Who has been charged by the Russia investigation Mr Trump tweeted that Stone's arrest was part of the "Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country!" Last month, after Stone said he would not testify against the president, Mr Trump praised his "guts." Having long lived by the code that "It's better to be infamous than never famous at all," Stone almost seemed to beam outside the Ft. Lauderdale courthouse after his arrest. Denying any wrongdoing, he decried his arrest as motivated by the president's political enemies and as an example of overreach by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating 2016 election interference and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. "There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself," Stone said after being released. Sam Nunberg, who also worked on the early stages of the Trump campaign, said Stone would relish the legal spotlight. "This is going to be OJ-esque," said Nunberg, referring to OJ Simpson, the former NFL star whose 1990s murder trial captivated a nation. "Roger will love every minute of it and while prosecutors may say this is a slam dunk case, don't count him out."
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