Former presidential adviser and longtime Republican operative Roger Stone admitted in federal court papers filed Monday that he has spread false information online.
In the settlement, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Stone retracted the information and apologized to Guo Wengui, an outspoken critic of the Chinese government also known as Miles Kwok.
A defamation lawsuit filed by Guo in May said Stone had used the far-right conspiracy theory site InfoWars to accuse Guo of making illegal political donations to Hillary Clinton and financing a presidential run by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
The suit also said Guo had been convicted of financial crimes in the United States.
"This is not true," the suit says.
The suit sought $100 million in damages.
In Monday’s settlement, a statement from Stone said he’d failed to do his own research and “improperly” relied on former Trump campaign advisor Sam Nunberg. The statement says Nunberg’s alleged source was Bruno Wu, who the Journal described as a Chinese-American media tycoon whom Guo has accused of being a Chinese government spy.
“Recognizing my errors, I reached out to Mr. Guo and asked him to settle his defamation suit against me,” Stone said. “Mr. Guo graciously agreed to accept my regrets and apology.”
The settlement says that Guo has agreed to drop the suit after Stone publishes the statement on InfoWars, Facebook, Instagram and on his personal site, StoneZone.com.
The settlement also requires that Stone publish it as an advertisement in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
The settlement comes as Stone appears to be under the microscope of special counsel Robert Mueller over his alleged connection to WikiLeaks and hacked Democratic emails released by the site in 2016. Stone has repeatedly denied any collusion with Wikileaks.
Lawyers for Guo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Stone said in a statement to NBC News on Tuesday, "I have retracted one story out of the hundreds I have reported in the two years I have worked as a correspondent at InfoWars."