Roger Stone has revealed emotional details of wife Nydia’s desperate cancer battle in an exclusive DailyMail.com interview, saying: ‘We are both devastated.’
He spoke after the couple filed a legal plea for a 90-day stay in a lawsuit being brought by the Department of Justice that claims they have failed to pay nearly $2million in taxes.
The pair say in the paperwork obtained by DailyMail.com that they cannot concentrate on the legal fight in Florida because of Nydia’s Stage IV lymphoma, which has spread to her lungs.
Stone – pardoned by former President Donald Trump after being sentenced to 40 months as a result of the Mueller Investigation – cited the stress of the past two years as one possible reason for his stricken wife’s illness.
The controversial political fixer revealed: ‘This diagnosis had come out of nowhere. We have had a tumultuous couple of years being vilified, smeared, framed, gagged, banned, de-platformed and bankrupted by a fraudulent and politically motivated witch hunt. And then a Soviet-style show trial.’
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Roger Stone has revealed emotional details of his wife Nydia’s cancer battle
Stone, who said his finances were wiped out after he was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering, has launched a video appeal for money to help fund Nydia’s treatment
Stone continued: ‘The point is that the stress is cumulative. And my poor wife was my rock throughout the entire thing. She is my soulmate, she is my life partner, she provides the balance in my life and tells me to chill out when I need to. We are both devastated by this.
Nydia is set for another visit to the University of Miami Cancer Center for a second opinion next Wednesday June 23
‘Right now she needs tranquility and quiet. She needs peace and that’s very hard to achieve.’
Former model and photographer Nydia, 74, was diagnosed at the beginning of the month with Stage III cancer. But that was later revised to the more serious Stage IV, delivering another blow to the couple.
‘My wife is highly resilient though,’ Stone, 68, told DailyMail.com. ‘Nydia’s in good spirits. She was initially in a lot of pain and had trouble breathing. She had very high fever because of pneumonia at the same time as her initial diagnosis.
‘She was hospitalized for nine days, however she is now back home. I mean, she’s very tough.’
Nydia is set for another visit to the University of Miami Cancer Center for a second opinion next Wednesday June 23.
‘It’s all consuming. We are overwhelmed with cancer advice right now,’ Stone said as he revealed the couple is considering a homeopathic and holistic approach to fight the disease.
He added: ‘We are firm believers in homeopathic and holistic treatment. We also don’t reject all modern medicine, but a lot of it is very cookie cutter. We are trying to select the right course for her. We are optimistic.’
Stone, who said his finances were wiped out after he was convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering, has launched a video appeal for money to help fund Nydia’s treatment.
He said: ‘Of course, we have not recovered financially. We lost everything. We lost our home. I had to sell my car, lost most of our insurance, lost our savings. We had a little fund put aside for the college education of our grandchildren generated from the sale of my five books.
‘So just at a time when I’m trying to get back on my feet, my wife is diagnosed with what they now tells us is Stage IV lymphoma which has spread to her lungs. And it is overwhelming.’
Stone was pardoned by former President Donald Trump after being sentenced to 40 months as a result of the Mueller Investigation
Nydia Stone is seen dancing with Donald Trump at her wedding to Roger. They married in Las Vegas in 1992 in a ceremony attended by Trump and then fiancée Marla Maples
‘This diagnosis had come out of nowhere,’ Stone said. ‘The point is that the stress is cumulative. And my poor wife was my rock throughout the entire thing’
Nydia was born in Washington DC after her Cuban parents moved there when her father was appointed military attaché for the pre-revolution Havana government. They moved back to Cuba with their daughter, but the family became refugees in the United States after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.
Stone, a long-time Trump ally, was working for the Ronald Reagan campaign when he met his second wife in 1980. They married in Las Vegas in 1992 in a ceremony attended by Trump and then fiancée Marla Maples.
The couple are accused in the DoJ lawsuit of failing to pay income tax by using their company Drake Ventures ‘to shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle’.
It alleges the Stones avoided paying $1,590,361 in taxes between 2007 and 2011 and snubbed the IRS of $407,036 in 2018.
And it added: ‘Despite notice and demand for payment, Roger and Nydia Stone have failed and refused to pay the entire amount of the liabilities.’
But the couple, who are both defendants, have now asked the Southern District of Florida federal court in Fort Lauderdale for more time to fight the claim due to the cancer diagnosis.
Their lawyers wrote: ‘The side effects of cancer treatment can be significant and greatly impair a person’s ability to complete day-to-day tasks… Mr Stone is likewise focused on his wife’s health and care and this sudden change to their lives.
‘Given that Ms Stone was principally involved in the family’s finances and has information that may be relevant to his defense, her inaccessibility during this time directly affects his ability to prepare a defense.
‘He is of course also impacted by his wife’s treatment plan as he remains one of her primary caretakers.’
The legal team also outlined some of Nydia’s treatment in their appeal for a delay. They said: ‘Ms Stone was hospitalized shortly after her diagnosis, released, and hospitalized again while her doctors conducted various tests and determined what treatment options, if any, might be available.’
‘Ms Stone was released from hospital again on June 10 and has started a course of treatment, but others may be necessary. Her short-term prognosis and health remain uncertain.
‘Nydia Stone’s recent diagnosis renders her and her husband, Defendant Roger Stone, unable to meaningfully participate in the case as they focus on the immediacy of Ms Stone’s health.’
The couple’s legal team added ‘the court should exercise its discretion to grant a 90 day stay in this matter’. They added the stay was ‘unopposed’.
The 90-day stay request is to give the Stones more time put their defence together.
Roger Stone said: ‘It would delay by 90 days the date by which we must formally respond to the Government’s complaint. At that point the normal trial schedule, whatever that is, would go forward.’
Stone continued: ‘The request for the delay was filed roughly five days before the response due date, to give the Government time to give the judge time to consider.’
‘It’s all consuming. We are overwhelmed with cancer advice right now,’ Stone said as he revealed the couple is considering a homeopathic and holistic approach to fight the disease
‘She is my soulmate, she is my life partner, she provides the balance in my life and tells me to chill out when I need to. We are both devastated by this,’ Stone said
Stone told DailyMail.com: ‘My wife handles all of our family finances and our tax filings and our bill payments and all our financial records. I like to say, I make the money she spends the money. And therefore it really is impossible to proceed on the Government’s case. And their case is a fraud.’
Nydia very publicly stood by her husband after he was seized in a dramatic swoop on their rented $9,500-a-month Fort Lauderdale mansion in January, 2019. He was found guilty of seven counts of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction – part of the inquiry by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Trump commuted his sentence days before he was due his jail term in July last year – and later pardoned him.
Stone branded the Department of Justice suit, filed in April, ‘another political hit’.
It alleges Drake Ventures – owned 50/50 by the couple – was used to pay their personal expenses, ‘evade their tax obligations and conceal their assets from collection by creditors’.
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And it continued: ‘The Stones caused numerous checks naming Roger Stone as payee to be deposited into Drake Ventures accounts. They also transferred funds from their personal bank accounts to Drake Ventures’ accounts.
‘The total of these check and wire transfers for the years 2018 and 2019 exceeds $1million. By depositing and transferring these funds into the Drake Ventures’ accounts instead of their personal accounts, the Stones evaded and frustrated the IRS’s collection efforts.
‘The Stones also used Drake Ventures’ accounts to pay some of their personal tax liabilities. The Stones paid over $500,000 of their personal tax liabilities from Drake Ventures’ accounts during the years 2018 and 2019.’
The ‘facts demonstrate that the Stones used Drake Ventures for an improper purpose and harm the United States’.
The couple filed a legal plea for a 90-day stay in a lawsuit being brought by the Department of Justice that claims they have failed to pay nearly $2million in taxes
The couple’s lawyers hit back in their latest filing, saying: ‘It is important to note that the Stones have not willfully shirked their tax obligations. This matter concerns the tax years 2007-2012 and 2018. All other tax years, the Stones have filed and paid as required.
‘More importantly, the complaint itself acknowledges that the Stones timely filed their 2007-2012 and 2018 tax returns.
‘However, finding themselves unable to pay their reported taxes at the end of the year, the Stones – as have many Americans – worked with the IRS on payment, initiating offers in compromise and requesting installment agreements.
‘They have endeavored to honor these obligations. In 2018 and 2019, the Stones paid the IRS over $500,000 towards the liabilities underlying this suit.’
Stone told DailyMail.com: ‘The DoJ imply that we have hidden income which is categorically false and easily disproven.
‘No asset has been hidden from them. Everything has been properly declared. It is a civil action. They are not charging me with tax evasion, because there is no tax evasion. I made four years of payments without missing a payment, until the Mueller investigation literally bankrupted us.
‘This is another deep state hit on me. The moment I fail to make payments they have the authority to take any asset I own. Today, right now. So the point of this lawsuit is what? It’s politically motivated.’
All contributions can be made at StoneFamilyFund.com.
