Longtime Republican political operative and Donald Trump loyalist Roger Stone has been accused by a media outlet of discussing the assassination of Democratic politicians.
Mr Stone — who received a pardon from Mr Trump after he was jailed for obstructing a federal investigation into the former president's ties to Russia — reportedly made comments to an NYPD officer about killing congressmen Eric Swalwell and Jerrold Nadler, according to an exclusive story from Mediaite.
Mediaite claims to have a recording of the conversation, but it has not made the recording public.
“It’s time to do it,” Mr Stone allegeldy told NYPD officer Sal Greco. “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 Nadler or Swalwell 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.”
The conversation allegedly took place in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election.
The Independent has reached out to Mr Stone for comment.
The publication further claims that it spoke with a source familiar with the discussion, and insisted that Mr Stone was being serious.
“It was definitely concerning that he was constantly planning violence with an NYPD officer and other militia groups,” the source reportedly said, according to Mediaite.
Both Mr Swalwell and Mr Nadler serve on the House Judiciary Committee, which — at the time the alleged conversation took place — was planning on investigating the pardon Mr Trump offered Stone.
The source reportedly told Mediaite that Mr Stone "hates" the two Democrats, and "had been at war" with them for "years."
The publication made a similar allegation last week, reporting that Mr Stone was also caught on tape asking Mr Greco to "punish" US Attorney Aaron Zelinsky, who led the prosecution's case against him during the Mueller probes.
“He needs to be punished,” Mr Stone allegedly told Mr Greco in the recording. “You have to abduct him and punish him. That has to be done. It will be easy to abduct him because he is a weakling.”
When reached for comment by Mediaite, Mr Stone reportedly said that the audio recordings were generated by AI.
“Total nonsense," Mr Stone reportedly said. "I’ve never said anything of the kind; more 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.”
He further denied the claims on his X/Twitter account.
"I never spoke about assassinating anyone. Fake Mediaite can't produce the recording they claim to have and, contrary to their claim, Newsweek never contacted me for comment," Mr Stone said in response to a Newsweek story covering the alleged audio.
Mr Greco reportedly denied offering further comment about the conversations, claiming readers would not be interested in "ancient political fodder."
