The National Memo has published a damning allegation against Ryan on its website. The source is none other than Republican insider, Roger Stone. Stone alleges that the Koch brothers bought Ryan’s VP nomination in exchange for a promised gift of $100 million to the Romney/Ryan ticket.



Veteran Republican political consultant, unrepentant dirty trickster, and recently reborn libertarian Roger Stone yesterday published a startling accusation against Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney on his personal website, The Stone Zone. According to Stone, the billionaire Koch brothers purchased the Republican vice presidential nomination for Ryan from Romney in late July by promising to fork over an additional $100 million toward “independent expenditure” campaigning for the GOP ticket.

Any such transaction would represent a serious violation of federal election laws and perhaps other statutes, aside from the ethical and character implications for all concerned. Although Stone is not the most reputable figure, to put it mildly, he has been a Republican insider, with access to the party’s top figures, over four decades. His credentials date back to Nixon’s Committee to Reelect The President and continue through the Reagan White House, the hard-fought Bush campaigns, and the Florida fiasco in 2000, when he masterminded the “Brooks Brothers riot” that shut down the Bush-Gore recount in Miami-Dade. Peruse his site and you’ll see his greatest hits and the attention he has drawn from major publications.

David Koch played a key role in Ryan’s selection and that Koch’s wife Julia had been quietly lobbying for Ryan. The selection was cemented at the July 22nd fundraiser Koch held for Romney at the former’s sumptuous Hamptons estate. Koch pledged $100 million more to C-4 and Super PAC efforts for Romney [in exchange] for Ryan’s selection.

When he mentions “C-4,” of course, Stone is referring to the tax-exempt non-profit groups recognized by the IRS under section 501-C-4 of federal tax law – such as Americans For Prosperity, a group largely backed by the Koch brothers that has so far spent nearly $20 million on this year’s campaign. The C-4 groups, including another known as Crossroads GPS run by Karl Rove, need not disclose their rich donors, while Super PACs do. This year, the right-wing C-4s are outspending all the SuperPACS combined, as Pro Publica reported recently.

If this is true, it would be a grave violation of federal election laws.Stone gives us more details as to how Koch allegedly bought Ryan’s VP selection:What is C-4?There needs to be a greater investigation by journalists, the media and the government to see if these allegations are true.

A Few Clarifications



(1). I am not saying that I believe Stone and his allegation. All I am asking for is an investigation to find out if these allegations are true. I made no judgment call in the body of this diary.

(2). I changed the title of the diary to reflect that this is merely an allegation, so that people will not take it to be the truth.We do not know at this point if it is true.

(3). There is a limit to the number of characters and words that can be compressed in the title. That is why the original title could not fit everything I wanted to convey within its space.