Trump associate Roger Stone tried to make conspiracy theorist have heart attack, lawsuit claims

Right-wing author accuses president’s ally of attempting to ‘smear, defame and threaten’

Roger Stone has been made the subject of a defamation lawsuit from Jerome Corsi, the author and conspiracy theorist at the centre of a criminal case against the former Donald Trump advisor.

Mr Corsi has confirmed he is the witness named as “Person 1” in last month’s indictment against Mr Stone, who stands accused of witness tampering and lying to Congress about communications with WikiLeaks.

The 72-year-old author – a perpetrator of right-wing conspiracy theories about top Democrats – is claiming that Mr Stone tried to “smear, defame, intimate and threaten” him after discovering he had given testimony to special counsel Robert Mueller.

The former Trump advisor has accused Mr Corsi of working with Mr Mueller to “sandbag” him on a “fabricated perjury charge”.

Mr Corsi is now seeking over $25 million in damages, according to a complaint filed in Washington federal court late on Thursday.

His attorney, Larry Klayman, claimed Mr Stone’s actions were intended to cause his 72-year-old client “heart attacks and strokes” in an effort to stop him providing legal evidence.

He wrote: “Defendant Stone’s intentional infliction of emotional distress and coercion and threats are intended to try even cause plaintiff Corsi to have heart attacks and strokes, in order that plaintiff will be unable to testify at Stone’s criminal trial.”

The lawsuit also claims that Mr Stone had caused “severe emotional distress and the fear of imminent serious bodily injury or death, and other mental and physical injuries, and Plaintiff was severely harmed and damaged thereby.”

Mr Stone faces seven charges related to Mr Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference, including giving false statements and witness tampering.

The grand jury indictment references an email from Mr Stone in late July 2016 in which he urged “Person 1” to visit Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks living in Ecuador’s embassy in London, to “get the pending... emails”.

Mr Corsi has denied any advanced knowledge of WikiLeaks’ hacked emails belonging to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

Jerome Corsi (AP)

The right-wing author’s lawsuit also accuses Mr Stone of making threatening allusions to the Mafia.

“Defendant Stone likes to portray himself as Mafia, frequently making reference to Mafia figures who he admires, as well as other unsavoury types who have been alleged to have engaged in unethical and/or illegal behaviour,” it states.

“Thus, given his admiration for persons such as these, particularly Mafia figures, his actions as pled herein can be taken as threats, as well as being defamatory.”

Roger Stone after he was released on bail in January 2019 (AP)

Last week US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson warned Mr Stone, who has made several high-profile media appearances since his arrest, that he could be subjected to a gag order if he continues to talk about the criminal case.

The special counsel’s office said the Justice Department had gathered evidence from his iCloud accounts, email accounts and computer hardware “spanning several years”.

The political strategist has vowed never to testify against Mr Trump.