MSNBC aired newly obtained footage on Wednesday evening showing Donald Trump ally and longtime GOP operative Roger Stone dictating what sounds a lot like the core of the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In the video, Stone dictates a message saying that “any legislative body” can send their own electors to the Electoral College “on the basis of overwhelming evidence of fraud.”
No such evidence has ever been presented, and Trump and his allies lost in the courts at every turn, including in cases before judges Trump himself had nominated.
But Stone claimed state legislatures could overturn those results anyway to “accurately reflect the president’s legitimate victory in their state, which was illegally denied him through fraud.”
He also said Trump allies must lobby via “personal contact” with lawmakers, which is what happened, in many cases with Trump himself calling and pressuring people to overturn the election results.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber notes it’s not clear what Stone did next or whether this message was actually given to Trump and used by his team. If it was, the footage could show just how early in the process the scheme was hatched, as it was recorded on Nov. 5, 2020 ― two days after Election Day and two days before the results were called for Democrat Joe Biden on Nov. 7.
“It sure is bad, it sure is incriminating, for people trying to say all they wanted to do was get to the real results or act on a good-faith belief,” Melber said. “You were trying to steal and overthrown an election you hadn’t even officially lost yet.”
The video was given to the network by Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen, who made a documentary about Stone and the 2020 election called “A Storm Foretold.”
The plot is now at the core of a federal indictment against Trump in Washington, D.C., as well as a state racketeering case against the former president and his allies in Georgia.
Attorney and former federal prosecutor John Flannery told Melber that the footage could be “powerful” for prosecutors, who could use it to show “knowledge and intent” behind the plot to overturn the 2020 election.
See the clip ― and the discussion ― below:
Guldbrandsen told The Daily Beast earlier this year that Stone at times seemed to forget he was wearing a mic and in one case became “really, really anxious” about the recordings afterward.
In previously released clips, Stone is heard calling Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter, an “abortionist bitch” and warning that Donald Trump would get his “fucking brains beat in” if he ran again.
He has not commented on the new footage but has suggested in the past that the clips could be “deep fake” videos.