Long time GOP Roger Stone, an operative and confidant of Trump, condemned Donald Trump as a “disgrace” that “betrayed everyone” in new footage from the day he took office after he was expelled from Washington on the day of Capitol rebellion so as not to be associated with chaos.
“I really want to get out of here,” he told an aide as they were followed by a Danish film crew as rebels searched the Capitol on Jan. 6. He said he feared prosecution by new Attorney General Merrick Garland. “He’s not a friend,” Stone said.
Stone allowed a Danish film crew to follow him for two years for a documentary, Predicted storm. The footage, first reported by the Washington Post, was obtained from .
He told the film’s creators that the riot was a mistake and would be “very bad” for Trump’s movement. “I think it’s very bad for the traffic. It hurts, it doesn’t help. I’m not sure what they thought they would achieve.
Since election day, Stone has been working with other right-wing operatives to raise money and stage a January 6 protest. Dictating an assistant’s text messages, Stone said he would resurrect the Stop the Steal campaign on November 5th. He told another aide that his brand would be “much hotter”. “We will raise money from Stop the Steal – it will be like falling off a log,” he added.
And although Stone is closely linked to several far-right operatives who have since been convicted of their role in the uprising, he himself says he is not involved in the violence and did not know in advance that it would happen.
Stone refused to testify before the commission on January 6, citing the Fifth Amendment, and is suing members of the commission to prevent them from calling his phone records.
“I really want to get out of here,” he told his aide as they were followed by a Danish film crew as rebels searched the Capitol on Jan. 6.
He said he feared prosecution by new Attorney General Merrick Garland. “He’s not a friend,” Stone said
Four months before voters even voted, Stone predicted Democrats would try to steal the election and conspired to keep Trump in the White House.
“It’s going to be really nasty,” Stone told the film’s creators at his home on July 9, 2020.
He told an official that Trump should reject the election results and put pressure on the courts whose judges he has appointed to rule in his favor.
“I am the president. “You,” Stone said, imagining Trump’s remarks. “You’re not stealing Florida, you’re not stealing Ohio. I dispute all this, and the judges we will be are the judges I have appointed. ” ‘
On November 5, Stone drew up the Stop the Steal plan on his laptop in footage taken by the film’s creators. While protesters had to mobilize, Trump supporters had to lobby state lawmakers to reject the election results.
As the rebels stormed the Capitol, Stone packed his belongings and fled the District of Columbia.
Stone, pictured above with assistant Christine Davis lying on the couch, said the Capitol uprising would be “very bad” for Trump’s movement.
Stone publicly downplayed his role in the Stop the Steal movement until he sought pardon from the president. He wrote in a blog post on November 30 that he was “not a participant” in any of the organizations using the name Stop the Steal in 2020.
On December 23, the White House announced that Trump would pardon Stone for his sentences in the Mueller case. By December 30, Stone has launched a fundraising campaign to help fund rallies and pay for private security.
In early January, Stone returned to Washington and settled near the White House at the Willard Hotel, the center of pro-Trump activity at the time. Stone, surrounded by four members of the far-right Oath Keepers, attended the Save America rally on January 5. Two members of the group have been accused of plotting a rebellious plot to storm the Capitol.
He told the crowd at the rally on January 5 that he would stand “side by side” with them the next day in what he described as a struggle between good and evil.
But the next day, Stone did not appear at the Ellipse rally. He told staff that some of the organizers of the rally were trying to exclude him. He told aide Christine Davis that he had complained to Julia Fancheli, heiress of the Publix supermarket that funds the day’s events, that organizers had prevented him and InfoWars’ Alex Jones from appearing on stage.
“I just created a little problem for them with Julie Fancheli,” Stone said. I just told her, “You spent 300 bucks and neither Jones nor I are talking.”
In the days after Jan. 6, Stone outlined his “stone plan” in which Trump would pardon himself, Stone, allies in Congress, along with other Trump supporters, including convicted mobsters.
Since then, Stone has encouraged Trump to run again in 2024 and has not shown any daylight between him and the former president. Trump commuted Stone’s sentence after he was convicted of obstructing the investigation in Russia, but Stone was furious that Trump had put his plan to bed. He blamed White House adviser Pat Chipolone.
“Clearly, Cipollone has thrown himself at everyone,” Stone said in a telephone conversation with Stephen Brown, who was in federal prison on a conviction for fraud. The conversation was recorded by the film’s creators.
“I’ll see you in jail,” Stone wrote to another Trump aide.
And in a conversation with a friend on the day he took office, Stone denounced Trump as a “disgrace” and said he supported his impeachment. “He betrayed everyone,” Stone said.
The plan included providing preventive pardons for Senators Ted Cruz, Texas, and Josh Hawley, Missouri, and Matt Gates, Florida, and Jim Jordan, Ohio.
Stone also ran a side business, begging Trump to pardon criminals while he was still in office, and charged huge fees for his work.
In his hotel room in Willard Stone, carrying a microphone, he could be heard on the phone with a man representing someone named Henry, who, according to the lawyer, “would be willing to pay up to $ 100,000.” “Everything must be legal,” the lawyer stressed.
“It’s actually legal,” Stone said of the agreement.
Stone then wanted to secure a second pardon for Trump in the final hours of the former president’s presidency. Trump hesitated. He then issued a pardon for Steve Bannon, but not another for Stone. Stone was furious, calling Bannon a fraud and cursing at the camera.
By the time he took office, Stone had dealt with Jared Kushner, whom he blamed for the failure of Stone’s plan. “He’ll get beaten up.” There must be a beating. And you have to be told, “This time I’m just beating you. “Next time we will kill you,” Stone told a camera.
Stone, pictured above, packs his things to dump the District of Columbia as rebels invade the Capitol
In his hotel room in Willard Stone, carrying a microphone, he could be heard on the phone with a man representing someone named Henry, who, according to the lawyer, “would be willing to pay up to $ 100,000.” “Everything must be legal,” the lawyer stressed
Knowing the cameras were on, an aide urged Stone to say he was joking. “No, no, it’s not a joke. I `m not joking. This is not a joke.’
Stone said Kushner should be “punished in the most brutal way possible” and would be “brain dead when I’m done with him.”
Stone then said that Trump was “the only big mistake in history.” He added that Trump could face criminal prosecution by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
“A good, long prison sentence will give him a chance to think about it, because the Southern District is coming for him, and he has done nothing,” Stone said.
He scoffed at Trump’s idea of running again in 2024. “Run again! Run!” You will put the devil in your brains.