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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
James Liddell

Trump ally Roger Stone suggests sending ‘armed guards’ to voting stations in undercover video

Getty Images

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Newly surfaced video footage reveals former Donald Trump adviser and longtime ally Roger Stone suggesting the deployment of Trump-backed “armed guards” at vote counting areas.

The notorious self-styled GOP “dirty trickster” was secretly recorded responding to a question about how Democrats can be stopped from “stealing” the election while mingling with attendees at his Jacksonville, Florida, event: ‘A Night with Roger Stone.’

“We have to fight it out on a state-by-state basis, but you have to be ready,” Stone can be heard replying in the undercover recording first given to Rolling Stone by documentarian Lauren Windsor.

“When they throw us out of Detroit, you go get a court order, you come in with your own armed guards, and you, and you dispute it. Instead, our guys just left.”

Stone was purportedly making reference to an election-fixing conspiracy theory that workers at Detroit’s Huntington Place ballot-counting station were attempting to rig the 2020 election.

Roger Stone was recorded suggesting sending armed guards to ballot centers and called former attorney general Bill Barr a ‘piece of s**t’ (Getty Images)

Trump allies spread false claims that fraudulent absentee and mail-in ballots had been delivered to the vote counting center in Michigan – leading to MAGA supporters attempting to force their way into the building, before being stopped by police blockade.

Trump also falsely claimed that there were far more votes cast than voters themselves – which was swiftly debunked with just over 250,000 of 670,000 residents casting ballots.

Experts, including one hired by Trump’s own campaign, failed to find any evidence the 2020 election was rigged in Michigan or any state.

It signifies that the political provocateur still has gripes about Joe Biden clinching the presidency last election cycle.

Stone greets people before Trump takes the stage at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition in November 2022 (Getty Images)

In the audio, Stone also took a swipe at Bill Barr, the former Trump attorney general who affirmed a month after the election that the Justice Department had “not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change” its outcome.

After being asked how Republicans will be able to protect the election despite no longer being “in control” as in 2020, the political operative replied: “We never really had control.”

He added: “I was indicted by Trump’s Justice Department. Bill Barr is a traitorous piece of human garbage … he’s a piece of s**t.”

Stone was set to serve 40-months in prison after he was indicted by special counsel Rovert Mueller in January 2019 on charges of obstructing official proceedings, lying to Congress and witness tampering. But just 10 days before his prospective lock-up he was pardoned by Trump.

Now, Stone says he wants Barr to be sent to jail.

“Trump read a law review article, never checked his background, and made [Barr] attorney general,” Stone continued. “Once we get back in he has to go to prison, he has to go to prison, he’s a criminal.”

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