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Political Battle Surrounding Spitzer Lands on Fla. Law Firm's Doorstep
Daily Business Review
September 07, 2007
When the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler hired noted Republican political operative Roger Stone Jr. to steer its new consulting company nearly two years ago, it hoped it would bring in governmental relations and crisis management business.
They never expected that hiring decision to bring the firm into the center of a political scandal in New York state government.
In the latest spat in the protracted brass-knuckles political battle between Democratic New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Republican state Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno, a threatening profanity-laced message was left on the voice mail of Spitzer's father, Bernard.
Lawyers representing Spitzer's octogenarian father claim Stone left the anonymous message on his Manhattan office phone. They claim they traced the number to Stone's Manhattan apartment phone number -- a number also used by the New York office of consulting firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler Consulting Group LLC.
Stone denies making the call.
Scott Rothstein, the law firm's co-founder, said he believes in Stone's innocence.
"This is nothing more than what occurs in the political arena every day," Rothstein said. "If someone doesn't like what someone is doing, they start slinging mud. And if they can't get at a politician, they get at his strategist. If I had to act every time someone threw mud at a political strategist, I'd spend my days firing people."
The allegations led to Stone resigning from his consulting gig with the New York Senate Republicans. His job running the consulting group, however, is not in jeopardy.
"No one has proven that Roger has done anything wrong," Rothstein said. "I'm not in the business of convicting people who are still innocent."
Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler is a 31-lawyer firm based in Fort Lauderdale, with offices in Tampa, Fla., and New York. The firm handles litigation, labor and employment, and government and public affairs, among a variety of other practice areas.
Several years ago, the firm decided to expand into consulting and formed Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler Consulting Group. This group specializes in crisis public relations and governmental relations. It has six employees including Stone, who has run the consulting arm of the operation since its inception 18 to 24 months ago, Rothstein said.
"When we wanted to create a consulting group getting involved in the political arena, we couldn't think of anyone better to head it up than Roger," Rosenfeldt said.
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE
Stone, 55, claimed to have worked for Richard Nixon's re-election committee and worked as a campaign strategist for Ronald Reagan. He also worked for President Bush during the 2000 Florida recount and real estate mogul and television reality show star Donald Trump during his campaign to prevent gambling in New York. Stone, who lives in Miami Beach, worked with Rothstein's partner and law firm co-founder Stuart Rosenfeldt on Reagan's first presidential campaign.
Most recently, Stone has been advising the New York state Senate Republicans on how to go on the offensive against Gov. Spitzer.
A vitriolic battle between the two camps has been escalating in Albany. The state Senate's investigatory committee launched an investigation into whether Spitzer's top aides used the New York State Police to tail Bruno when he used a state government aircraft to travel from the state capital to New York City.
Spitzer demoted one aide and suspended the other. On Aug. 6, a message was left on 83-year-old Bernard Spitzer's work voice mail threatening him with a subpoena and possible jail time for a $4.3 million loan he made to his son during his unsuccessful campaign in 1994.
NASTY MESSAGE
"There is not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho, piece-of-shit son can do about it," the voice on the phone message reportedly said. "Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you. You will be forced to tell the truth and the fact that your son's a pathological liar will be known to all."
A few weeks later, the Democrats pointed the finger at Stone in a letter sent to the panel investigating the alleged misuse of state police.
"Why would I do such a thing?" Stone said in an interview with the Daily Business Review this week. "I pride myself on a Nixonian-type discipline to achieve my goals. There's a difference between playing up to the rules and playing over the rules."
His Web site, the Stone Zone -- which is sponsored by the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm -- calls the allegations "Spitzer's ultimate dirty trick." He said he has contacted the FBI's former voice analyst to determine if the voice mail was his voice or was created through audio software.
Stone initially accused his landlord, who was a fundraiser for Spitzer, of making the apartment accessible to allies of the governor. He later retracted that accusation, stating in an interview that he was "naive" to the wonders of technology. He said it's possible the call was made to appear that it came from his number.
He also initially claimed he was at a play that night. He later retracted that statement when he realized the theater was dark the night in question.
Stone's angry retort on his Web site, however, also echoes the allegations made to Bernard Spitzer on his voice mail regarding the illegal loan.
Scott Rothstein called Stone "brilliant" and a "force to be reckoned with." He said his colleague is not unethical and definitely not stupid.
Rothstein said if Stone had wanted to make the call, he would have hidden his number, or called from a pay phone or used a throw-away cell phone.
"You're actually calling him an idiot if you're saying that a genius political strategist made this call from his own house," Rothstein said. "It smells more to me like a political setup. On his worst day or if he were asleep, if Roger really wanted to injure someone, he is smarter than making the telephone call from his own phone number."
The New York Times quoted Stone saying the number also belonged to Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler's consulting group.
Stone said in the interview that the consulting group uses his Central Park apartment's address and phone number for contact information for its New York operations.
"It was not the first time I've seen our firm's name next to Mr. Stone's, nor would it be the last," Rothstein said. "I just looked to make sure they spelled the law firm's name right."
