Roger J. Stone Jr., the longtime associate of President Trump’s, has been lobbying for a pioneering cryptocurrency investor known as “Bitcoin Jesus” who is facing federal fraud and criminal tax charges, according to congressional filings.
Mr. Stone filed paperwork last month indicating that he had been retained by Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin investor who was charged last year and accused of shielding his cryptocurrency holdings from $48 million in taxes.
Mr. Stone noted in a filing last week that he had been paid $600,000 by Mr. Ver since early February to help his client’s case, partly by trying to abolish the tax provisions at the heart of the charges.
Mr. Ver, a former California resident who renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014, was arrested last year in Spain, according to the Justice Department, which announced plans at the time to extradite him.
Mr. Ver disputed the charges, claiming in a video posted on social media in January that he was being threatened with a possible sentence of more than 100 years in prison because of his political views and his role in promoting cryptocurrency.
In the video, which was framed as an appeal to Mr. Trump, Mr. Ver linked his case to the president’s grievances about the weaponization of the justice system.
As footage of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on the screen, Mr. Ver said that “if there’s anybody that knows what it’s like to be the victim of lawfare for spreading American ideals, it’s Donald Trump.”
“They’re doing the exact same thing to me that they’ve done to you,” he added.
Mr. Ver did not respond to a request for comment.
His lobbying, public relations and legal campaign comes as Mr. Trump has embraced cryptocurrency and dialed back efforts to crack down on the industry, which donated millions of dollars to committees raising money for Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and inauguration.
Mr. Trump’s family is involved in several cryptocurrency-related ventures.
His administration has announced initiatives to stimulate the industry, and has backed away from enforcement against crypto companies. Mr. Trump pardoned a different Bitcoin pioneer who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for creating Silk Road, the world’s largest online drug marketplace.
Last month, he also granted pardons to three founders of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX who had pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating guidelines in the Bank Secrecy Act, a law that protects against money laundering.
Other figures in the crypto world have been angling for clemency, including Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed FTX crypto exchange who is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud.
Mr. Ver’s case has become something of a cause célèbre among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, who have called for a pardon.
In December, Mr. Stone’s website posted an essay by an activist titled “Why Roger Ver deserves a presidential pardon.”
In the final month of his first term, Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Stone’s conviction for obstructing a congressional investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and its possible ties to Russia.
But Mr. Stone told The New York Times that he was not relying on his decades-long relationship with Mr. Trump to help Mr. Ver.
“I have not lobbied any official in the executive branch of government including the president regarding his case or a pardon,” Mr. Stone wrote in a text message. Instead, he indicated that he was hired primarily to advise Mr. Ver’s lawyer.
In court filings, Mr. Ver’s legal team has called the tax laws in question “inscrutably vague as to their application to digital assets of the kind that underlie the charges.” His lawyers have challenged the constitutionality of the so-called “exit tax” requiring Americans to settle tax obligations before renouncing their citizenship.
Prosecutors accused Mr. Ver of concealing the value of his Bitcoin holdings while preparing his expatriation tax filings.
Mr. Stone indicated in his lobbying filings that he had lobbied the House about “ending the exit tax and reform of cryptocurrency tax policy.”
Mr. Stone said in a text message that he had discussed Mr. Ver’s case with lawmakers, and had “at all times advocated reform of the current laws regarding taxes upon expatriation.”
