Roger Stone Seeks Judge’s Permission to Appear at a Strip Club

It’s not what you think.

Roger Stone arrives at court on April 30, 2019, in Washington, DC.Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Thursday, lawyers for Roger Stone, whose travel is restricted ahead of his November trial on obstruction of justice and perjury charges, requested a judge’s permission to visit Tennessee and Illinois “for business opportunities.”

One of those opportunities is at the Pony, an adult entertainment club in Memphis, where Stone is scheduled to appear June 5-7. A longtime political adviser to President Donald Trump, Stone “is coming out to judge the national exotic dancer competition that we’re hosting,” the club’s owner, Jerry Westlund, tells Mother Jones. The appearance is on brand for Stone, who touts himself as a libertine—he once took a New Yorker reporter to a swinger’s club that he said he frequented. “He’s been very open about his appreciation for beautiful women,” Westlund says. (Stone’s lawyer did not respond to questions about the purpose of the Illinois visit.)

In a Facebook post, the club said Stone will judge dancers alongside Kristin Davis, who is known as the “Manhattan Madam” for her role running a high-end prostitution ring in New York City in the early 2000s. Stone has previously employed Davis, and they are close friends. They shared a New York City apartment for a time, and he is her son’s godfather. He also advised Davis’ 2010 bid for New York governor on a libertarian platform.

Stone has complained publicly about his mounting legal expenses and his loss of income due to his prosecution. He has hustled to drum up support for a legal defense fund, selling T-shirts and rocks with his signature on them. Last week, he launched a “Family Support Fund” to seek donations to cover “rent, food, medical expenses, insurance, gasoline, and the most basic of living expenses” for him and his wife. Strip-club appearance fees may be an emerging source of income for the cash-strapped dirty trickster. He gave a lecture earlier this month at an adult club in Richmond, Virginia.

Westlund says a contract bars him from revealing what he is paying Stone. But he jokingly says he will be paying Stone an “educational stipend.” Westlund hopes the controversial political operative will create publicity: “In spite of their prowess, our dancers don’t necessarily get the media attention that they deserve.”

Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who says she had a tryst with Trump in 2007, appeared at Westlund’s club last year. “She was a big success and a big hit,” he says. “Who better to follow up than Roger Stone?” Stone’s visit reflects no particular political agenda, Westlund says. But he notes, “I’m a proud supporter of the First Amendment.”

Correction: This article has been updated to note that Judge Amy Berman Jackson has not yet ruled on Stone’s travel request.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate