Roger Stone, a former Trump aide, defended longtime friend Kristin Davis, dubbed the "Manhattan Madam," on Saturday after she agreed to comply with a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller's team.
Stone, who has long been linked with the Mueller investigation, told Newsweek Saturday that Davis, who worked for him in the past, has "no knowledge of Russian collusion during the 2016 election."
"I cannot imagine why the special counsel wants to interview her other than for the purposes of harassment," Stone said in a text message. Davis was sentenced in 2014 to two years in prison for illegally distributing prescription pills. In the past, she claimed to have helped high-profile clients, including former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, to obtain prostitutes.
"Kristin Davis has been a friend of mine and has worked on and off for me for 10 years," Stone said, noting that Davis is currently in the cosmetology business. "She is a brilliant woman who paid her debt to society and who has remade her life. I am the Godfather to her son."
Stone's defense of Davis comes after TMZ first reported Friday that Davis agreed to meet with prosecutors and cooperate.
Andrew Miller, who was a long-time associate of Stone and previously served as the campaign manager to Davis' 2010 run for New York governor, was also subpoenaed last month by Mueller's team.
In the 29-page indictment accusing 12 Russian intelligence officers of 2016 election interference earlier this month, Mueller's team claimed the Russians posed as a Twitter account called Guccifer 2.0. The indictment said the account "communicated with U.S. persons about the release of stolen documents." Though Stone is not named, he told the Guardian that he was "probably the person mentioned on the indictment."
In a statement to Newsweek at the time, Stone said his brief exchange with "someone on Twitter claiming to be Guccifer 2.0 is benign based on its content, context and timing." He also said Mueller's indictment did not state that he had conspired with any of the defendants.
Additional reporting by Nicole Goodkind.
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About the writer
Ramsey Touchberry is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek based in the nation's capital, where he regularly covers Congress.
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