Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser to Donald Trump, has settled a $100 million lawsuit accusing him of publishing false information on the InfoWars website.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui sued Stone in March. In the settlement reached Monday, Stone acknowledged that he publicly stated that Guo had been "convicted of financial crimes in the United States" and "violated U.S. election law."
Stone now says, "All of these statements are not true."
In a statement Tuesday, Stone clarified that "at no time did I knowingly publish material that I knew to be false." Rather, he said, he made "the terrible mistake of relying on the representations of Sam Nunberg in my reporting."
The settlement identifies Chinese-American media tycoon Bruno Wu as "the apparent source of the information" and says it was conveyed to Stone by Nunberg, a former Trump campaign aide.
Stone said Tuesday, "When incorrect statements were brought to my attention I apologized and agreed to a retraction."
Guo has criticized high-level corruption in China and applied for asylum in the U.S.
The settlement allows Stone to avoid paying any damages if he publishes national newspaper ads apologizing for the statements and retracts the statements online. He still is of interest to investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
