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Roger Stone, a longtime Republican strategist and an informal adviser to President Donald Trump, had his Twitter account suspended on Saturday.
Stone spent much of Friday evening and night attacking CNN personalities after the outlet reported that special counsel Robert Mueller had filed the first charges in his Russia investigation. Mueller is examining Russia's interference in the 2016 election, as well as whether any members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the election in his favor.
After the news broke, Stone took to Twitter and lashed out at CNN's Jake Tapper and Don Lemon, as well as network commentator and New York Times columnist Charles Blow. He accused them, without evidence, of lying and called them "fake news," as well as several derogatory slurs.
Stone told Business Insider after his Twitter account was suspended that his tweets directed at Lemon were not related to revelations about Mueller's indictments, but rather Lemon's "nonsensical claim that the Clinton's [sic] have been cleared in the Uranium One scandal."
Though the 2010 deal made its way back into headlines over the last week, extensive reporting and fact-checking found no signs of wrongdoing when the Obama administration allowed Rosatom, a Russian nuclear energy firm, to acquire Canada-based Uranium One, which had significant mining stakes in the US. The deal required approval from several government agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which Hillary Clinton had no control over, The New Yorker reported on Saturday.
Stone also tweeted out CNN's story about Mueller's charges and captioned it, "Breaking: Mueller indicts @PaulManafort's driver for double parking." He was referring to Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman who is one of Mueller's key subjects in the Russia investigation.
Stone later followed up, writing that Mueller was indicting "@PaulManafort's maid for tearing labels of sofa cushions."
Stone's suspension from Twitter is permanent, sources told BuzzFeed shortly after the account was shut down.
"I have been informed that I have been suspended for 3 hours and 12 minutes," Stone told Business Insider in a text message. "While I am uncertain why, sometimes the stark truth offends some people. I'll be baaaaaak.
"It's funny people on twitter threaten to kill me, my wife , my children and even my dogs but they are not banned," he said later on Saturday.
(BI)
