Washington
CNN
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The day before the 2020 election, Roger Stone, the Republican operative and ally of former President Donald Trump, told a documentary film crew that he had no interest in waiting for the actual votes to be counted before contesting the election results.
“F**k the vote, let’s go straight to violence,” Stone can be heard saying, according to footage provided by a Danish documentary film crew and obtained by CNN.
The clip is one of multiple images obtained by CNN that the filmmakers also shared with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The filmmakers tell CNN they reached an agreement to share certain clips with the committee after the panel’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, signed a subpoena for the footage and delivered it to the filmmakers in Copenhagen a few days ago. two months
The filmmakers, Christoffer Guldbrandsen and Frederik Marbell, followed Stone for parts of about three years for their documentary.
Images shared with the committee may be incorporated into their next hearing this week. Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, publicly suggested over the weekend that the panel has more to reveal about Stone’s connection to domestic extremist groups, as well as efforts to keep Trump in power. after the attack on the US Capitol and the current threats to democracy.
“Stay tuned,” Raskin told the Texas Tribune festival when asked about Stone’s possible connections to the Capitol riot.
“He’s someone who I think saw where things were going,” Raskin said.
In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, the filmmakers said the committee seemed interested in footage that focused on Stone’s relationship with the White House, as well as his alleged ties to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. The filmmakers said they were unable to establish a link between Stone, those groups and the White House.
Members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys face multiple charges, including seditious conspiracy, for their actions during the Capitol riots.
The trial for several Oath Keepers, including their leader Stewart Rhodes, will begin with jury selection on Tuesday.
When the committee’s investigators traveled to Denmark to review documentary footage related to Stone, they reached an agreement with the filmmakers to share 8 minutes of video that was of interest to the panel and within the scope of their investigation. Politico first reported on this trip in August.
The FBI also contacted the film crew in March and has not shared footage with federal investigators, the filmmakers said. The FBI did not issue a subpoena to the crew, they said.
Filmmaker: The video shows Roger Stone revealing how “stop the steal” would work.
In a second clip from the documentary, also obtained by CNN, Stone said Trump should claim victory prematurely on election night in 2020.
“I really suspect it will still be up in the air. When that happens, the most important thing is to claim victory. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, we haven’t won,” Stone said on Nov. 1, 2020, according to the images
In another clip, filmed a week after Jan. 6, Stone is seen criticizing the White House counsel’s office for what he described as its argument that Trump could not offer preemptive pardons to Stone and others for his alleged involvement in the efforts to annul the elections.
“I think the president is in favor. The obstacles are these: They are these lily-livered, weak-kneed bureaucrats in the White House counsel’s office and now they have to be crushed because they told the president something which is not true,” Stone says in the clip.
As early as July 2020, Stone talked about challenging the upcoming presidential election in court. “The election will not be normal,” he said.
“Sorry, we don’t accept them,” he said of the expected results. “We challenge them in court.”
“If voters present themselves at the Electoral College, armed guards will expel them,” he continued. “I’m challenging everything. And the judges we’re going to, they’re judges I appointed.”
Stone disputed the authenticity of the footage.
“I challenge the accuracy and authenticity of these videos and believe they have been manipulated and selectively edited. I also note that the filmmakers have no legal right to use them. How ironic that Kim Kardashian and I are subjected to manipulated videos by computer on the same day,” Stone said in a statement to CNN.
“The excerpts you have provided below prove nothing, certainly not that he had anything to do with the events of January 6th. That said, it clearly shows that I advocated for legal options in Congress and in the courts,” he added.
It’s unclear what the committee might have uncovered, but some basic details are known about Stone’s whereabouts and involvement in the events of January 6.
On January 5, the day before the attack on the Capitol, members of the far-right militia group The Oath Keepers provided security for Stone during a rally that day, including driving him around in a golf cart.
Stone also had contacts with the Proud Boys, a right-wing group known for street violence, and has been recorded reciting the group’s creed in a video released by the House select committee.
According to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony to the committee this summer, the night before Jan. 6, Trump told then-chief of staff Mark Meadows to ask Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn what would happen on January 6th.
Hutchinson testified that Meadows called Stone and Flynn that night and tried to go to the Willard Hotel in Washington, where Trump supporters, including Stone, had set up a “war room.”
Stone, who attended the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, has not been charged with a crime in connection with the attack on the Capitol.
This story was updated Monday with additional details.
