Roger Stone Sues January 6 Committee To Block Release Of Phone Records

Roger Stone, a longtime ally and adviser of former President Donald Trump, sued to keep his personal phone records from being turned over to the House select committee investigating last year’s January 6 Capitol attack.

The committee subpoenaed AT&T for Stone’s phone records from November 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021, which would include metadata such as his cell phone number, contacts and incoming and outgoing call times. It would not include the content of the actual communications.

The phone company alerted Stone to the subpoena and allowed him time to challenge the order in court.

In Stone’s lawsuit, he argued that the subpoena was unlawful under the First and Fourth Amendments. He claimed that Democrats on the committee would be able to use the phone records against their Republican opponents.

“The billions of data points yielded can recreate not just intimate relationships, but also locations and movements, creating a virtual CAT-scan of the Select Committee’s political opposition, likely, as reported, including even their own colleagues in the House of Representatives,” Stone’s lawyer said in the lawsuit.

The suit also asserted Stone’s classification as a private citizen.

“He has never served in government,” the suit said. “He has reasonable expectations of privacy and is under no required record-keeping regulations like government officials or government employees.”

The suit also states that the subpoena was unlawful because by targeting him, information about his associates would also be released, “The data sought is not pertinent to the investigation and sweeps up privileged communications between Stone and clergy and Stone and his respective attorneys.”

Stone met with the committee last December but invoked his Fifth Amendment rights that allowed him to refrain from answering questions to avoid self-incrimination.

Article by Rose Carter