Republican operative Roger Stone denied asking a political ally of U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz for $250,000 in exchange for attempting to secure a pardon in a child sex-trafficking and identity-theft case. The Daily Beast reported Thursday that Stone offered to help Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector whoâs expected to plead guilty this month, get a pardon from President Donald Trump before he left office. The pardon was never granted. The report was based on alleged text messages between Stone and Greenberg, as well as an alleged written confession by Greenberg saying that he and Gaetz, a Florida Republican and Trump ally, paid for sex with women as well as with a 17-year-old girl.