UPDATE: Following the publication of this post, The Daily Caller removed Stone’s piece from its website. A link to the piece currently redirects to the site's mainpage. There is currently no explanation for the removal. Stone’s author page also no longer lists the April 25 piece. A screenshot of the article can be found here via Google cache.
ORIGINAL: Donald Trump ally Roger Stone wrote an anti-Ted Cruz piece for The Daily Caller that contains at least five paragraphs in which research and language were lifted from a conservative blog. Stone did not attribute or credit the blog, instead passing the research off as his own.
Stone is a longtime adviser and friend to Trump. He now heads a pro-Trump super PAC and has stirred controversy by promising to disclose the hotels and room numbers of Republican National Convention delegates who are purportedly trying to “steal” the nomination from Trump. Stone has a long history of dirty tricks and smears.
Stone, “The Daily Caller's Men's Fashion Editor,” wrote an April 25 piece attacking “establishment globalist” Cruz for selling “the American worker down the river by voting for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
Much of Stone’s piece previously appeared in a November 11 blog post authored by “sundance” for the blog The Conservative Tree House (the piece was reposted several times on that blog in subsequent months).
Stone is aware of The Conservative Tree House blog, having previously tweeted out links to the blog and citing it in an April 8 Daily Caller piece on conservative pundits allegedly supporting Cruz “for the money.” In that piece, Stone cited “a blogger identified simply as ‘sundance’” “in an article posted on TheConservativeTreeHouse.com.”
Here is a side-by-side visual of Stone’s piece and The Conservative Tree House post (click here to view a larger image). Five consecutive paragraphs in Stone's piece plagiarize content from a lengthy section of the piece at The Conservative Treehouse blog:
Here are five examples from the piece where Stone lifted language and research from The Conservative Tree House post without any attribution (the only link included in Stone's piece matches a link also used in The Conservative Treehouse post). The instances where the language is virtually identical are bolded.
Example 1:
Stone wrote:
House Bill #2146 became the Trojan horse for passing Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal more than a year ago. HR2146 was originally introduced in the House to remedy problems with law enforcement and firefighter retirement funds.
Sundance wrote:
This House Bill #2146 originating April 30th ’15, became the vehicle for passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
HR2146 was originally introduced in the House of Representatives as a bill to address issues with retirement funds of federal law enforcement officers and firefighters.
Example 2:
Stone wrote:
In April of 2015, Senator Ted Cruz and House Ways and Means Chair Paul Ryan supported TPA being added to HR2146. In fact, they penned an op-ed in the in the [sic] Wall Street Journal on April 22, 2015, which painted a picture of it as the savior of American labor and commerce.
Sundance wrote:
In April of 2015 Senator Ted Cruz and House Ways and Means Chairman, Representative Paul Ryan, supported TPA being added to HR2146. Their support was most notable when they posted the following Op-Ed which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on April 22nd:
Example 3:
Stone wrote:
On June 4th 2015 the Senate passed the House bill with an amendment adding TPA (thanks to Ted Cruz) and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA, needed for Elizabeth Warren coalition) by unanimous consent thereby avoiding a roll vote on record. This has allowed Cruz to pretend he didn’t support it, until now.
Sundance wrote:
As planned, on June 4th 2015 The senate passed the house bill “with changes” notably an amendment “adding TPA” (thanks to Ted Cruz) and TAA (needed for Elizabeth Warren coalition) By unanimous consent thereby avoiding a roll vote on record.
Example 4:
Stone wrote:
On June 18, 2015, the House accepted the TPA change championed by Paul Ryan. It also removed TAA (the financial assistance package for training of union workers), which greatly upset Nancy Pelosi. But the White House was much more concerned with TPA and TPP, so Pelosi did what she was told and went along.
Sundance wrote:
On June 18, 2015 the House accepted the TPA change (Paul Ryan spearhead) and removed TAA (the financial assistance package for training of union workers – this angered the Pelosi Dems). Nancy Pelosi had to be arm twisted by the White House to go along with HR2146 with TAA spending removed – she acquiesced.
Example 5:
Stone wrote:
Without TAA, HR2146 passed again in the House and bounced back to the Senate — where TAA was removed. OnJune 24 [sic], HR2146 (TPA without TAA) then passed the Senate.
Sundance wrote:
Without TAA HR2146 passed again in the House, only this time with a much closer vote of 218-208, and went back to the Senate to resolve differences. (The difference was the removal of TAA)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2146
On June 24th HR2146 (TPA without TAA) Then passed the Senate (Ted Cruz did not attempt to block or filibuster because this was the original plan all along).