Veteran Republican political operative Roger Stone was so angry about the way he was characterized in a Buzzfeed story about Donald Trump’s various political flirtations that on Friday he sent an irate email to the story’s author, McKay Coppins.
The story, published Thursday, detailed time Coppins spent on Trump’s private plane and at his estate in Florida. Stone, whose consulting firm works with Trump, took issue with the way Coppins described a 2007 Weekly Standard profile of him that was referenced in the story. Coppins wrote that “the article described Stone as a ‘Nixon-era trickster’ who blackmailed reporters, lied constantly to everybody.”
Stone forwarded his response to TPM Friday. In it, he disputed those characterizations.
“Did you even read the Weekly Standard article? Please site (sic) the actual line from that article that says I ‘blackmailed reporters’ or ‘lied constantly to everybody,'” Stone wrote to Coppins. “The only liar here appears to be you. … You call yourself a journalist?”
In the Weekly Standard story, writer Matt Labash said Stone engages in “playful stabs at blackmail over fabricated infractions.” As an example, Labash said Stone once falsely accused him of hitting on his wife. Labash also described Stone as being, “honest about his dishonesty.”
Stone told TPM in a separate email that Coppins did not reply to his email other than to post a copy of it on Twitter. He described Coppins’ actions as “chickenshit.”
Stone isn’t the only one who had a negative reaction to Coppins’ story. Trump’s special counsel, Michael Cohen, issued a statement describing the piece as a “totally dishonest and unfair article, written by a politically irrelevant website.” Coppins also tweeted a copy of an email of an email he said he received from New York Republican Carl Paladino about the story.
“Big joke. Fuck you asshole,” Paladino wrote.
In an email to TPM, Paladino described Coppins as a stranger to him.
“I don’t have any interactions with McCay (sic). I don’t know him. I am a Trump ally,” wrote Paladino.
For his part, Coppins said in an email that he was “confident” about his story.
“It’s too bad Trump & co. didn’t enjoy my story; I very much enjoyed my time with them! In any case, I’m confident in its accuracy, and look forward to hearing from him,” Coppins said.
