Roger Stone and his wife are trying to settle the Justice Department’s lawsuit over $2 million in unpaid taxes
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Roger Stone, a former adviser and confidante to former U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives for a deposition before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol on December 17, 2021 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Roger Stone and his wife are trying to settle the Justice Department’s $2 million tax lawsuit.
Prosecutors allege they lived a lavish lifestyle and failed to adhere to an IRS payment plan.
The Republican operative previously railed against the case, claiming it was politically motivated.
In April 2021, federal prosecutors in Florida brought a lawsuit against Roger Stone and his wife, Nydia Stone. Since 2011, they alleged, the couple had been skipping out on their tax bills to live a “lavish lifestyle.” Fees and fines included, they owed about $2 million, according to prosecutors.
More than a year later, Stone is trying to settle the lawsuit, court records show, but the deadline for the Justice Department to accept or reject the offer keeps being extended — with the latest deadline, Friday, July 15, looming.
Attorneys for Stone failed to reach a settlement during mediation with federal prosecutors in April. In May, prosecutors asked a judge to compel Stone to produce records as part of the discovery process ahead of trial.
On June 17, the deadline the judge gave Stone to produce discovery material, the GOP operative and his wife offered a settlement.
“The Stone Defendants submitted a settlement offer to the United States that, if accepted, will resolve all claims and issues in this case,” the Stones’ attorney Brian R. Harris wrote in a filing submitted to court that day. “The United States is currently processing the offer in accordance with its internal procedures and expects to provide a response next week.”
Since then, the Justice Department has repeatedly asked for extensions as it “is continuing to process thesettlement offer,” Harris wrote in court filings.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Roger Stone railed against the charges. A longtime Republican operative who, months earlier, was pardoned by now-former President Donald Trump after a jury found him guilty of obstructing Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, he claimed the lawsuit was politically motivated.
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He said litigation from the charges in the Mueller case had bankrupted him and the tax lawsuit was “yet another example of the Democrats weaponizing the Justice Department.” The Justice Department’s lawsuit said Stone had previously agreed to pay the IRS what he owed in monthly installments but stopped paying in March 2019.
Roger Stone didn’t respond to Insider’s request for comment for this story. Harris declined to comment. A representative for the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, which brought the lawsuit, didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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