Roger Stone distances himself from ‘Stop the Steal’ and the insurrection after the WaPo documentary bomb
Roger Stone, whose decades of political work earned him a reputation as the Republican Party’s ‘dirty crook’, played a pivotal role in the bid to overturn the 2020 election results and was the architect of the #StopTheSteal campaign , The Washington Post unveiled on Friday.
DC newspaper reporters have been granted exclusive access to video footage shot by Danish filmmakers for an as-yet-unreleased documentary titled A predicted storm. Excerpts from the film have been released to support the Posts claims that Stone acted as a puppeteer in the crucial weeks after Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
“We’re reviving Stop the Steal,” he told an associate over the phone, after asking them to round up headlines that would question the validity of the election.
Will the founder of Oath Keepers overthrow the organizers of January 6?
The footage also showed how Stone quickly pulled away from the chaos as words inspired action and the coordinated political campaign of lies led to its inevitable conclusion: thousands of violent Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building. A dramatic video clip shows a disappointed Stone packing into a hotel to leave Washington as rioters descend on the headquarters of Congress.
Stone, reached by The Daily Beast on Friday morning, pushed back and claimed The Washington Post the story contained “13 errors of fact”.
“Any assertion or implication in which I was involved or knew of or condoned illegal actions in the capital[sic] January 6 is baseless and categorically false,” he wrote. “Those storming the capitol have destroyed a perfectly legal effort to delay certification or the Electoral College for 11 days so that irregularities and anomalies in Airzona Michigan Wisconsin Pennsylvania and Nevada voting can be further investigated. “
the To post The story does not claim that he ordered the rioters to attack Congress, but the sudden appearance of the “Stop the Steal” movement did, in fact, fuel widespread suspicion and culminate in insurrection.
When asked if he took credit for resurrecting #StopTheSteal, Stone pushed back, but acknowledged he came up with the phrase for another reason years ago.
“No, I coined the phrase ‘stop theft’ in 2016 because it related to the 2016 Republican National Convention,” he wrote to The Daily Beast.
On Friday, Stone also challenged some associations related to his stay at the Willard InterContinental hotel, where powerful Trump loyalists manned a “war room” to coordinate the attempt to overthrow the US Constitution and illegally keep him in power. For example, Stone distanced himself from Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, the anti-government paramilitary organization whose members stormed the Capitol while wearing military attire and uniforms.
One of that group, Joshua James, was Stone’s golf cart driver and quasi-bodyguard shortly before the assault and has since pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, the most serious criminal charge never used in the January 6 cases. Video footage reportedly shows James inside Stone’s hotel suite at the Willard.
“I never spoke to Stewart Roads [sic] in my life [and] Joshua James has never been in my hotel suite,” Stone wrote.
Earlier reporting by The Daily Beast shows that members of the Oath Keepers ultimately felt betrayed by Stone and other figures they were guarding during that tumultuous week in the nation’s capital – friction that could be seized upon by the committee of the 6 January of the House and the Department of Justice. , both of which are investigating illegal activities related to the insurgency.
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