A new report from CNN adds to the reporting that longtime Trump ally Roger Stone is under serious investigation for an alleged recording in which he can seemingly be heard harping for a political assassination of either Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) or Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.). Both Democrats have been prominently involved in high-profile efforts to hold Donald Trump to account.
The audio potentially implicating Stone was surfaced in reporting by the news outlet Mediaite. “It’s either Swalwell or Nadler has to die before the election. They need to get the message,” Stone allegedly said. In further remarks, he sounds intent (taking the recording as legitimate) on taking specific steps to secure these ambitions of a politically motivated killing. Stone has unsurprisingly denied the legitimacy of the audio obtained by Mediaite, arguing he was the target simply of artificial intelligence-driven trickery. Separately though, he is on camera pushing for what he himself called violence in the context of the 2020 presidential election, so potentially supportive context is there.
The alleged recording dates to the same period: before the 2020 presidential election. Stone remained active in Trump’s circles after that contest concluded and as the now ex-president sought another four years in office despite the documentation of his loss. Spurred in part by unsupported conspiracy theories that he’s somehow in cahoots with Chinese governmental interests, Swalwell was also the target of threats from a recently arrested Florida man who said in voicemail messages that he was going to kill the Congressman and his children. One of the messages just repeated the name of Swalwell’s alleged link to those Chinese ambitions over and over.
“US Capitol Police are investigating comments allegedly made by pro-Trump political operative Roger Stone in the weeks before the 2020 election in which he appears to discuss assassinating two well-known House Democrats, two sources familiar with the probe confirmed to CNN,” that outlet said, adding the FBI was also involved in investigating. The mentioned police force bears responsibility for protection of members of Congress in addition to their duties at the Capitol complex in Washington, D.C.
