New documentary footage shared with The Washington Post has given insight into the chaos surrounding the Jan. 6th insurrection and one of the main Trump advisors/supporters who had a pivotal role in it.
Roger Stone, a longtime ally of the former president and a political lobbyist with ties to Nixon, invited a documentary crew to film him over the course of two years — a time period that overlapped with the Stop the Steal campaign and the riots on Capitol Hill. Stone, who was instrumental in getting Trump elected and who’s already been the subject of one documentary, secretly advised the president during his final days in office, drafting up something he called the “Stone Plan” that would ensure blanket presidential pardons for Trump’s closest allies before President Joe Biden took office. Stone — who was scheduled to attend the president’s rally early on Jan. 6th but backed out at the last minute after VIP accommodations couldn’t be met — wanted Trump to issue pardons for a number of associates including members of Congress like Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, his friends in the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers movements, Capitol Hill insurrectionists, and imprisoned mobsters.
According to The Post, Stone’s pardon plan was ultimately thwarted by White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
“Clearly, Cipollone f—ed everybody,” Stone told another friend in prison in footage reviewed by the paper. In a text message he wrote later that same day, Stone told another Trump supporter, “See you in prison.”
Though Stone denied any involvement in the Jan. 6th insurrection, he attended a rally the night before urging protestors to prepare for a fight, and his game plan to instill doubt in the 2020 Presidential Election results was the foundation for Trump’s Stop The Steal campaign. Despite all of that, Trump refused to issue pardons to his friend and instead, chose to pardon Steve Bannon — something filmmakers said enraged Stone and prompted him to publicly threaten both Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“In two weeks he’s moving to Miami,” Stone was caught ranting while hooked up to a mic for the documentary. He was referring to Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s planned move to Florida after the election was certified. “He’s going to get a beating. He needs to have a beating. And needs to be told, ‘This time we’re just beating you. Next time we’re killing you.’ ” When an associate realized Stone was still being recorded he urged him to say he was just joking to which Stone replied, “No, no, it isn’t joking. Not joking. It’s not a joke.”
Later Stone would turn on Trump himself, raging about how he’d betrayed his friends and disgraced the movement saying Trump was, “the greatest single mistake in American history.” He then referenced the ongoing federal investigation in New York.
“A good, long sentence in prison will give him a chance to think about it, because the Southern District is coming for him, and he did nothing,” Stone said.
And, despite issuing public support for another Trump presidential campaign a few months later, on Inauguration Day Stone laughed at the idea his old friend could win again. “Run again! You’ll get your f—ing brains beat in,” he said.
(Via The Washington Post)
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/roger-stone-documentary-trump-jan-6th-pardon-insurrectionists-stone-plan/