The House committee wants Stone to testify behind closed doors. Stone wants to speak publicly, which would give him more exposure and help him publicize his new book. | Getty To pay Russia probe legal bills, Trump pal launches ‘Who Framed Roger Stone’ site

MIAMI — Who Framed Roger Stone?

Though it jokingly draws its name from a 1980s cartoon movie, the eponymous new website launched by President Donald Trump’s notorious on-again-off-again political adviser is all about the serious business of paying his legal bills as he fights Democrats in Congress and a new civil lawsuit alleging he played a key role in disseminating hacked information on behalf of Russia in the 2016 elections.


Stone, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, tells POLITICO Florida that the Russia allegations and lawsuit naming him and Trump as co-conspirators have no merit.

“What they’ve done is taken allegations in print and pasted it together in a bogus lawsuit, so we have to defend,” Stone said. “This could cost me a hundred thousand dollars at least.”

Other Trump associates are racking up big legal bills amid the Russia investigations.

Trump’s campaign has shelled out at least $50,000 on attorneys for his son, Donald Trump Jr. Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, is in the process of setting up a legal defense fund similar to the Roger Stone Legal Defense Fund, a knowledgeable source said. Former Trump campaign operative Michael Caputo has told reporters he’s liquidating his kids’ college fund to pay for his attorney fees.

The new lawsuit naming Stone and Trump was filed last month in federal court in the District of Columbia on behalf of two donors and a mid-level staffer at the DNC. The lawyers handling the case, tied to the Obama White House, belong to a new watchdog group called United to Protect Democracy.

The lawsuit’s two donors, Roy Cockrum and Eric Schoenberg, say the hacked DNC emails released by WikiLeaks before the election contained personal information, such as Social Security numbers, that made them vulnerable to identity theft. Staffer Scott Comer alleges the hack violated his privacy. The suit notes that Stone — who got his start in politics as a “dirty trickster” for Nixon’s reelection campaign — first met Trump in 1979 after an introduction from Roy Cohn, an attorney and former adviser to former Sen. Joe McCarthy two decades earlier.

Before the suit was filed, Stone said, he had been paying his attorneys fees out of pocket as they negotiated with the House Intelligence Committee over his future testimony in the Russia collusion probe. Stone was supposed to testify July 24, but the committee postponed his appearance.

The House committee wants Stone to testify behind closed doors. Stone wants to speak publicly, which would give him more exposure and help him publicize his new book, “The Making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution.”

“I want to testify in public. I’m for full transparency,” Stone said. “There might be a little show biz as well. I’m willing to testify in front of the closed committee, which I will agree to do if they immediately release the transcript.”

Stone said he’s demanding the release of the transcript on the advice of Caputo, a friend of his who was called to testify last month.

After Caputo gave his closed-door testimony, he complained that Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat on the committee who wasn’t present when he spoke, said afterward that he “may have actually lied.” Caputo said he told the truth but that he couldn’t prove it because the hearing had been in closed session and there was no transcript.

“It’s Kafkaesque,” Caputo said. “The House Intelligence Committee calls you to testify, tells you it’s classified and not to talk about it and then a congresswoman who wasn’t even there can accuse you of lying and there’s no way to prove your innocence. It’s a rigged system.”

Said Stone: “It was a trap laid for me that I don’t intend to step into. … They’ve maligned me in public, defamed me in public. But they don’t want me to respond in public. They’re scared.”

POLITICO staff writer Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: Michael Caputo is not related to POLITICO Florida reporter Marc Caputo