Roger Stone's reputation as a political advisor not afraid to advocate whatever it takes to win could work against him should Special Counsel Robert Mueller charge him with a crime in the current Russia investigation.
CNN:
"Roger has carefully crafted his public image and sometimes that, I think, doesn't work in his favor," said Kristin Davis, a Stone friend who has worked on and off with him for 10 years and recently testified before the grand jury. "He's a victim of his own reputation."
Stone knows Mueller is targeting him and is trying to frame possible upcoming charges as totally fabricated.
"It is entirely likely that Mueller is squeezing some of my current or former associates to tell lies about me," Stone said in an interview with The Influential newsletter. "By the same token, Mueller may seek to bring some bogus charge against me to induce me to testify against the President. I am not saying I have any negative information against the President - I'm saying I won't be pressured into making s--- up. This I will not do."
Mueller has called multiple Stone associates to testify before his grand jury.
Witnesses have been presented with records of Stone's emails and text messages during their interviews with investigators, according to sources familiar with the investigation, even though Stone himself has not provided those materials to Mueller's team or congressional committees.
People familiar with the situation said investigators have primarily focused on Stone's activities in 2016, when he traded messages with the hacker Guccifer 2.0 and publicly boasted about his communications with WikiLeaks.
But witnesses have also been pressed about whether Stone has lived up to the dirty trickster public persona he has enthusiastically embraced for decades over the course of his political career.
In a statement to CNN, Stone said, "I have always acknowledged playing hard ball politics but have also said in my books and in the Netflix documentary that my campaign tactics do not include breaking the law. This would not be the first time the Special Counsel has willfully misled the grand jury."
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Davis, famously known as the "Manhattan Madam" for her former role as the head of a prostitution ring, said she was questioned about the win-at-all-costs image Stone conveys in his book, "Stone's Rules: How to Win at Politics, Business, and Style," and the 2017 documentary about him, "Get Me Roger Stone."
"I think they were framing things in a way to present Roger Stone as a villain to the jury," Davis said in a recent interview ...
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Stone -- who has a likeness of President Richard Nixon immortalized in a tattoo on his back -- has a decades-long history of embracing his image as a political guru who relishes the dark underbelly of politics.
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When Trump launched his presidential bid in 2015, Stone served briefly as a political adviser before being fired or quitting, depending on whether you believe Stone's account or Trump's.
Still, he and Trump stayed in touch and Stone was one of the people who recommended that Trump hire Manafort to help out on his presidential campaign.
Manafort, who eventually became Trump's campaign chairman, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy against the US and conspiracy to obstruct justice ...
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As for Stone, he has repeatedly insisted he is innocent of any claims of collusion.
"Where, by the way, is their proof of Russian collusion, WikiLeaks collaboration or advance knowledge of the acquisition and publication of (Hillary Clinton Campaign Chairman John) Podesta's email? That would be none," Stone said.
"Perhaps they are confusing me with the character I sometimes play, Roger Stone," he added.
Roger Stone built a 'dirty trickster' image. Now Robert Mueller might build a case on it. (CNN)