There are calls for veteran political consultant Roger Stone to face prosecution after audio of him appearing to call for the murders of Democratic congressmen emerged.
The clip, obtained by news website Mediaite, features the top Donald Trump ally making threatening remarks about New York Rep. Jerry Nadler and California’s Eric Swalwell while speaking to a NYPD police officer. It happened in a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, weeks before the 2020 election.
“It’s time to do it,” Stone told Sal Greco, who no longer works as a police officer. “Let’s go find Swalwell. It’s time to do it. Then we’ll see how brave the rest of them are. It’s time to do it. It’s either Swalwell or Nadler has to die before the election. They need to get the message. Let’s go find Swalwell and get this over with. I’m just not putting up with this s*** anymore.”
Stone has denied making the remarks, and previously suggested he was the victim of artificial intelligence [AI] manipulation. “You asked me to respond to audios that you don’t let me hear and you don’t identify a source for. Absurd,” Stone told Mediaite.
Newsweek contacted Roger Stone on Saturday for comment via email.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
A clip of Stone making the threats against Nadler and Swallwell has now been published by Mediaite. The site says that the audio has been lightly edited to protect the source who provided them with the recording.
In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Stone has once again said that the audio has been digitally manipulated and denies discussing the assassination of the Democratic lawmakers.
There are now calls for Stone to face criminal investigation over his remarks heard in the audio. He was pardoned by Trump after being convicted of lying to Congress in relation to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Joanne Carducci, better known as the popular political social-media account JoJo from Jerz, posted on X: “Roger Stone needs to rot in jail.”
Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, commented: “How are these people not in prison for conspiracy to commit murder?”
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and MSNBC columnist, wrote while sharing the clip of Stone: “He should be in prison.”
Rick Wilson, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, a Republican PAC consisting of Trump critics, added: “Roger Stone will die in prison.”
Footage captured by Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen for his documentary A Storm Foretold, showed Stone saying “f*** the voting, let’s get right to the violence,” on the eve of the 2020 election.
Stone said that his remarks were meant as a joke, adding that the videos of him were deep fakes.
Greco provided security for Stone while he attended the January 6, 2021 election protests that took place in Washington D.C ahead of the Capitol riot. He did not deny that Stone made the comments about Swalwell and Nadler.
“I don’t think your reader is interested in ancient political fodder,” Greco told Mediaite.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.