COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — People facing high-profile federal investigations that dominate national political chatter can often be found dodging reporters camped out near their driveways.

But not Roger Stone, a longtime practitioner of hardball politics who cut his teeth in Richard Nixon’s White House by coming up with “opposition research” to undermine the reputations of rivals.

Stone, who began offering political advice to President Donald Trump in the 1980s when the current president was a Manhattan real estate developer, acknowledged Wednesday night that he is among those under scrutiny in the inquiry into alleged meddling by Russia in last year’s presidential election.

In an interview before he spoke to about 75 Otsego County Republican activists, Stone, a best-selling author and subject of a documentary now popular on Netflix, said he hopes to testify in public should he be called as a witness in the inquiry.

“I will not ask for immunity,” Stone said. “I will show up voluntarily. I would really like to testify.”

He also said he had no contact with Russians during the months leading up to the November election.

“I think they just threw me in there because I’m a good foil,” Stone, 64, explained. “I have this reputation for hard-elbow politics.” 

These days, Stone’s elbows are aimed at special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia probe, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who arranged for Mueller, a former FBI director, to be installed in that role.

Stone contended that both men are too close to fired FBI director James Comey to ensure a fair outcome to the investigation, and should resign.

“If Mueller doesn’t have the good sense to resign, he should be fired,” said Stone. “Comey, Mueller and Rosenstein are the three amigos. Look at their backgrounds and you see they are in it together.” 

Stone said assertions that he may be linked to meddling by the Russians apparently grew out of innuendo from contact he acknowledges he had last year with Twitter user Guccifer 2.0. Stone said it has also been noted that he openly predicted that documents damaging to the campaign of Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, would be posted online in the final weeks of the election cycle.

Wikileaks did release such documents several days after Stone’s prediction. But Stone said he was simply repeating what Wikileaks had signaled months before that. In short, Stone argued, all the talk about his alleged role in the Russia affair amounts to much ado about nothing. 

Stone also argued there is no legal basis for the ongoing investigation because, he insisted, there has been no proof that any crime was committed. As for the fact that numerous federal intelligence agencies have signaled that there was meddling by Russia as part of an effort to ensure Clinton’s defeat, Stone said government agencies turned out to be incorrect when they concluded that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. military invaded during the administration of President George W. Bush.

Asked about recent polls showing Trump is now viewed unfavorably by many voters, Stone said those surveys would be worrisome if the next election was 60 days away, arguing there is plenty of time for the new president to build a record that will boost his popularity.

“He is still more interesting and outside the box than anybody who has held the job,” he said, adding he hopes Trump continues to use social media as his communications platform.

“Sadly, the administration really only has one effective spokesman,” Stone said. “The good news is that it’s Donald Trump. And those who say he should stop tweeting are completely wrong. The tweet is the most effective method of communication because it doesn’t get filtered by the media.”

Stone has displayed his libertarian leanings recent weeks by pushing for the legalization of marijuana. He criticized Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for suggesting that the federal government will fight states that have legalized recreational or medicinal marijuana.

Stone said he wished the alleged spying on Americans that was authorized by Barack Obama’s administration was of far greater concern to Sessions than “some kid smoking a nickel bag of pot.

“If he lets Sessions go to town with this, I don’t know why anyone under 30 years old would vote to re-elect him,” Stone said.

Several demonstrators gathered across the street from the Otesaga Resort Hotel, where Stone met with GOP activists, to protest his appearance in Cooperstown.

Joe Mahoney covers the New York Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jmahoney@cnhi.com.