Roger Stone, once an adviser and confidante to former President Donald Trump, addresses reporters in front of the Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Federal Building
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Stone, a Trump confidante, sought a second pardon from the former president after the Capitol riot.Stone was seen in footage saying “let’s get right to the violence” the day before the 2020 election.Stone had a prison sentence commuted by Trump before he left the White House.
Roger Stone sought a second pardon from former President Donald Trump after the Capitol riot, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
According to texts seen by the outlet, Stone — a former adviser to Trump — approached David Schoen, an attorney who represented Trump in his second impeachment trial, following the events of January 6, 2021.
Stone asked Schoen to “plug” his request for a pardon when he spoke to Trump, per the outlet. “At this point, I’d be happy if he pardoned me and Kerik again,” Stone told Schoen, referring to Bernard Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner who Trump pardoned.
Kerik was sentenced to four years in prison in 2010 after he pleaded guilty to eight felony charges, including dodging taxes and giving false statements to White House officials while being vetted to be chief of the Department of Homeland Security.
Like Stone, Kerik was investigated by the House panel probing the January 6 riot and attempts made to overturn the 2020 election.
“He’s already pardoned both of us so he would take no heat for it whatsoever,” Stone added, per The Times.
Per the outlet, he also told Schoen that there would be “mass prosecutions” following the Capitol riot. “If he can be the only president impeached twice maybe you should be the only person pardoned twice,” Schoen replied, referring to Trump.
Trump commuted Stone’s 40-month prison sentence before he left the White House. The pardon concerned Stone’s November 2019 indictment and February 2020 sentence on one count of obstruction, five counts of making false statements to the FBI and congressional investigators, and one count of witness tampering in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
The text messages were reported on a day after new footage was aired by CNN, which showed Stone calling for violence the day before the 2020 election.
“Fuck the voting, let’s get right to the violence,” Stone can be heard saying to his associates during a car ride. “Shoot to kill, you see an Antifa — shoot to kill.”
For his part, Stone has claimed without substantiation that the clip of him calling for violence is a “deep fake.”
“CNN airs fraudulent deep fake videos and expects anyone to believe them based on their long history of lies,” Stone wrote on Telegram on Monday.
Stone and a representative for Schoen did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.