Footage from the documentary, “A Storm Foretold,” revealed new details about efforts made by Roger Stone, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, to challenge the results of the 2020 election.
The Washington Post reviewed more than 20 hours of the footage. The documentary is expected to be released later this year, as the Post reported.
The footage shows Stone told his staffer Enrique Alejandro the former president should use his powers to reject the results of the election.
“It’s going to be really nasty,” Stone said, adding, “If the electors show up at the electoral college, armed guards will throw them out.”
Stone imagined Trump’s remarks, saying, “‘I’m the president. F*** you.'”
He added, “‘You’re not stealing Florida, you’re not stealing Ohio. I’m challenging all of it, and the judges we’re going to are judges I appointed.'”
Stone later told an aide to resurrect his Stop the Steal campaign. He said to another aide his brand was about to be “quite a bit hotter.”
He continued, “We’re going to raise money from Stop the Steal — it will be like falling off a log.”
As a mob ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s longest-serving political adviser, hurried to pack his suitcase inside his elegant suite in the Willard hotel, exclusive video reviewed by The Post shows. https://t.co/Bfpm8fY6jE
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 4, 2022
Other footage showed Stone working with Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn to come up with a slogan for Stop the Steal.
“Our slogan should be ‘count every legal ballot.’ Much better messaging. More positive,” Stone said.
He added, “Well, we both know he often does things he shouldn’t do.”
The Post noted Trump later gave a speech at the White House, saying, “If you count the legal votes, I easily win.”
The former adviser to Trump defended efforts to urge Congress to reject the results of the election.
“When Hillary Clinton sought to stop the certification of Trump’s election by the Electoral College in 2017 the Washington Post found it neither seditious or illegal,” he said in a statement to the Post.
On January 5 2021, Stone spoke at the Rally to Save America. He said he would stand with the crowd “shoulder to shoulder” on January 6.
The Post pointed out Stone did not appear at the main rally on January 6.
“When we stepped outside, Roger had changed his mind,” Christoffer Guldbrandsen, the director, said, adding, “Now he didn’t want to go to the Ellipse to see Trump speak.”
When it came to the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Stone condemned the attack to the filmmakers.
“I think it’s really bad for the movement. It hurts, it doesn’t help. I’m not sure what they thought they were going to achieve,” Stone said.
Still, Stone explained, “When you can’t get a fair and honest judicial opinion, when you can’t get a fair, honest and transparent election, when your legislative process is constipated by fear and threat…Those who make peaceful progress impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”
Stone went on to push for pardons for Republicans who attempted to block or delay the certification of Biden’s victory.
On Inauguration Day, Stone mocked the idea of Trump running again in 2024.
“Run again! You’ll get your f***ing brains beat in,” Stone said.
He later told the filmmakers, “Obviously if you use any of that, I’ll murder you.”
