Long-time Donald Trump confidant, and convicted felon, Roger Stone said that the president should declare “martial law” to seize power if he loses what Stone characterized as an already corrupt election.
The results will only be legitimate if the “real winner” — Trump — takes office, regardless of what the votes say, Stone declared. A loss would apparently be justification for Trump to use force to take over the nation.
Stone, who worked as an adviser in the last Trump campaign, made the astonishing statements Thursday on the InfoWars program of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Both men talked of an ongoing “coup” against Trump, and Stone inexplicably claimed that he predicted “almost three decades ago that this moment would come.”
Stone appeared resigned to a Trump loss — but blamed it on the baseless claim that early voting has already been “corrupted.”
To safeguard Trump’s position, Stone called for federal authorities to seize ballots in Nevada, for FBI agents to physically block certain voters from casting their ballots, and for Trump to use his powers for widespread arrests to solidify his power, Media Matters first reported.
Under martial law and the Insurrection Act, Trump will have “the authority” to arrest Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, “the Clintons” and “anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity,” Stone said. He also called for the immediate arrest of former defense secretary James Mattis for “sedition,” apparently because he feared Trump was unfit for office, according to Washington Post journalist’s to Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, “Rage.”
In addition, Stone warned, journalist also risk arrest. “If the Daily Beast is involved in provably seditious ... acts” in a new Trump future, their “entire staff can be taken into custody and their office can be shut down.” “They want to play war, this is war,” he added.
Stone demanded that “the ballots in Nevada on election night should be seized by federal marshals” and not counted, claiming with absolutely no evidence that “they are completely corrupted.”
While such off-the-rail suggestions could easily be shrugged off from most, Stone is a high-profile friend of the president and has his ear, critics fear. Harvard law professor and Constitutional expert Laurence Tribe warned that Stone’s “advocacy of totalitarian takeover by Trump has to be taken seriously.”
Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean blasted Stone for calling on Trump to “declare himself America’s dictator” — voicing what “many Republicans crave.”
Stone dodged 40 months in prison thanks to Trump, who commuted his sentence in July. Stone was convicted of seven federal felonies, including lying to Congress and witness tampering in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Jones called Stone “almost a political prisoner.”
Check out Stone’s interview in the clip up top. The mentioned sections can be found at 9:54 (Nevada ballots), 11:40 (arresting Zuckerberg, Cook and “the Clintons”) and Daily Beast arrests (14:00). He accuses Mattis of sedition beginning at 16:25.
