Fifty thousand dollars a month to help a regime accused of war crimes rebuild its image
In the long and morally complicated history of power brokering, few arrangements lay bare the contradictions of influence more starkly than Roger Stone's $50,000-a-month contract to rehabilitate Myanmar's military junta in Washington. The regime, which seized power in a 2021 coup and has since faced accusations of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, is now paying a pardoned Trump confidante to soften its image before the very government that has sanctioned it. It is a transaction that asks a quiet but urgent question: at what point does the machinery of lobbying become complicit in the suffering it helps to obscure?
- Myanmar's military junta, internationally isolated after a 2021 coup and facing genocide investigations, is paying Roger Stone $50,000 a month to rebuild its standing in Washington.
- The regime's record is not abstract — more than 450 civilians were killed in military air strikes and drone attacks in March 2026 alone, the deadliest month since the coup.
- Stone, already a polarizing figure after his 2019 conviction and subsequent Trump pardon, is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as providing 'public affairs services' through the lobbying firm DCI Group.
- Human rights organizations like Justice for Myanmar have condemned the arrangement as profiteering from a sanctioned regime committing atrocities with impunity.
- The junta recently staged elections that international observers called a sham, installing coup architect Min Aung Hlaing as president in what activists describe as a calculated push for international rehabilitation.
- Whether Congress or the State Department will scrutinize the contract remains uncertain, as the payments continue and the body count in Myanmar rises.
Roger Stone, the 73-year-old political operative and longtime Trump confidante, is drawing international condemnation for a contract that is, at its core, straightforward: $50,000 a month to improve Myanmar's military government's standing in Washington. Documented in Foreign Agents Registration Act filings, the arrangement places Stone as a consultant through the firm DCI Group, tasked with rebuilding diplomatic and economic ties between the United States and the junta, with a focus on trade, natural resources, and humanitarian assistance.
The context surrounding the contract is anything but routine. Myanmar's military seized power in February 2021, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and triggering a civil war. In the years since, the junta has faced mounting accusations of systematic atrocities — the International Court of Justice is examining genocide allegations against the Rohingya Muslim minority, and the UN has documented substantial evidence of war crimes. March 2026 was the deadliest month since the coup, with more than 450 people killed in military air strikes and drone attacks. The United States has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions against the regime in response.
Earlier this year, the junta staged elections that international observers dismissed as a choreographed sham, after which coup architect Min Aung Hlaing was appointed president. Activists argue the regime is now attempting to rehabilitate its international image precisely as evidence of its crimes continues to accumulate — and that Stone's contract is a tool of that effort.
Justice for Myanmar, a civil society organization tracking the junta's international relationships, has accused both Stone and DCI Group of profiting from a heavily sanctioned regime committing war crimes with impunity. Stone's history adds further weight to the criticism: convicted in 2019 of obstructing a congressional investigation, he was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2020 before serving any prison time. Neither Stone nor DCI Group responded to requests for comment. The contract remains active, the payments ongoing, as international investigations into the military's conduct proceed and the death toll inside Myanmar continues to rise.
Roger Stone, the 73-year-old political operative who has moved through American power circles for decades, is now drawing international condemnation for a far simpler transaction: fifty thousand dollars a month to help Myanmar's military government improve its standing in Washington.
Stone's arrangement, documented in filings required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, positions him as a consultant working through the firm DCI Group. His stated mission is to rebuild diplomatic and economic ties between the United States and Myanmar's military-backed administration, with particular attention to trade, natural resources, and humanitarian assistance. The work is technically described as "public affairs services" provided to Myanmar's ministry of information. But the context surrounding this contract transforms it from routine lobbying into something far more fraught.
Myanmar's military seized power in a coup in February 2021, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and plunging the country into economic collapse and civil war. In the five years since, the junta has faced mounting accusations of atrocities that international investigators say may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United Nations has documented substantial evidence of systematic abuses. The International Court of Justice is currently examining allegations of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. The military has responded to civilian resistance with air strikes and drone attacks; in March 2026 alone, more than 450 people were killed in such operations, the deadliest month since the coup. The United States has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions against the regime and its officials in response to both the coup itself and the alleged atrocities that followed.
Yet earlier this year, Myanmar's military held elections it presented as a return to democratic normalcy. International observers and human rights groups dismissed the vote as a carefully choreographed sham designed to manufacture legitimacy. The general who orchestrated the coup, Min Aung Hlaing, was subsequently appointed president. Activists monitoring the situation argue that the junta is now attempting to rehabilitate its international image precisely at a moment when the evidence of its crimes is mounting.
This is the backdrop against which Stone's contract appears. Justice for Myanmar, a civil society organization tracking the junta's actions and international relationships, has accused both DCI Group and Stone of profiting from what it describes as a heavily sanctioned regime committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with impunity. The accusation cuts to a fundamental tension: Stone is being paid to normalize relations with a government that the international community has largely isolated because of documented abuses against its own population.
Stone himself is no stranger to controversy or legal jeopardy. In 2019, he was convicted of obstructing a congressional investigation into whether the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russia during the 2016 election. He was sentenced to forty months in prison but never served the time. In 2020, as his legal appeals were exhausted, Donald Trump granted him a full pardon. That history—his conviction, his pardon, his long association with Trump—adds another layer to the current arrangement, linking a figure already viewed with suspicion by many to a regime accused of systematic brutality.
Neither Stone nor DCI Group responded to requests for comment on the arrangement. The contract itself remains active, the monthly payments continuing, as the death toll in Myanmar mounts and international investigations into the military's conduct proceed. What happens next depends partly on whether Congress or the State Department moves to scrutinize the arrangement more closely, and partly on whether the junta's efforts to rehabilitate itself internationally gain any traction despite the weight of evidence against it.
Notable Quotes
Justice for Myanmar accused DCI Group and Stone of profiting from a heavily sanctioned junta committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with total impunity— Justice for Myanmar, civil society group
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would someone with Stone's profile take on a client like this? It seems like obvious reputational risk.
Because fifty thousand a month is real money, and because Stone has spent his career operating in spaces where conventional reputational risk doesn't apply the same way. He's already been convicted, already been pardoned. The calculus changes.
But the junta is actively committing atrocities right now. This isn't historical. People are dying.
Yes. That's what makes the timing so stark. The military is trying to normalize itself internationally at the exact moment when the evidence of what it's done is most visible. Stone's job is to help that normalization happen.
Can he actually succeed? Can a lobbyist change how Washington sees Myanmar?
Not alone. But he's not working alone. He's one piece of a larger effort by the junta to rebuild relationships with powerful countries. If enough pressure is applied in enough places, perceptions can shift. That's what activists are worried about.
What would success look like for Stone?
Reduced sanctions. Restored trade relationships. Myanmar back in the fold of normal international commerce. The junta gets legitimacy; Stone gets paid.
And if it doesn't work?
Then he's simply a man who took money from a regime accused of war crimes and failed to deliver. The money is still his.