The U.S. Capitol Police are investigating alleged comments made by Roger Stone after Mediaite published audio of the political operative appearing to discuss the assassination of two Democratic congressmen.
Mediaite first published details of the audio — recorded in the weeks before the 2020 election — last week. In a clip, Stone purportedly tells a friend working as his security detail that it’s time to “go find” Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). Both are members on the powerful House Judiciary Committee.
“Let’s go find Swalwell. It’s time to do it,” Stone allegedly says during the conversation at a restaurant in Florida. “Then we’ll see how brave the rest of them are. It’s time to do it. It’s either Swalwell or Nadler 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 shit anymore.”
Stone has denied he made the comments, claiming they were “poorly fabricated AI generated fraud.” But Mediaite and CNN both reported Tuesday that Capitol Police were investigating the remarks with the help of the FBI.
Swalwell said Tuesday the nature of the comments “must be taken seriously by not only law enforcement but also by my colleagues.”
“The Roger Stone assassination plot recording may seem like the ravings of a wannabe gangster. It’s not,” Swalwell said in a statement to Mediaite. “This is what Trump and his real-life thugs do: they try to intimidate opponents and will always choose violence over voting.”
He added, “Because I’m one of Trump’s loudest critics, Stone put a hit out on me.”
Stone ― a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump ― was convicted in 2019 of lying to congressional investigators and obstructing an official proceeding as part of then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election. Trump commuted his sentence during his final year in office, but the House Judiciary Committee planned to investigate that decision.
Stone’s purported remarks came after Nadler said in July 2020 that Trump had “infected our judicial system with partisanship and cronyism,” vowing to look into the then-president’s behavior.