Roger Stone Responds to Jan. 6 Hearing as Video Shows Him Back 'Violence'

Conservative political operative and friend of former President Donald Trump said the January 6 Committee is saying he is guilty by association and that it has no evidence of criminal conspiracy.

During its ninth and potentially final hearing Thursday, the committee aired video showing Stone before and after the 2020 election.

"I said, 'F**k the voting, let's get right to the violence," Stone said November 2, 2020, while donning a 'Trump 2020' facemask. "We'll have to start smashing pumpkins, if you know what I mean."

In another video, Stone is recorded speaking outdoors with Trump supporters. He told them that he suspects the election's results "will be up in the air."

"When that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory," he said.

Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren alluded to Stone's deposition in which he invoked his Fifth Amendment right when asked if the violence on January 6 was justified and whether he had any role in planning the violence that occurred that day.

"The members of the January 6 committee are well aware by law that in any proceeding in which a US citizen elects to invoke the fifth amendment right not to answer questions they must answer ALL questions by invoking their fifth amendment right and that showing me declining to answer any one specific question is manipulative," Stone wrote on Telegram on Thursday.

He used Telegram to voice his displeasure with the committee's other assertions.

"In 2000 when the Bush v. Gore election was still in doubt James A. Baker III Urged Bush to claim victory which he did and was hailed as a genius- When I said Trump should do the same thing ( in public but to not to either Trump or anyone around him) and I am accused of criminal conduct," Stone wrote in one post. "Total BS."

In another post he said, "the fact that I know or have met someone is most certainly not evidence of criminal conspiracy, adding that anyone with "actual proof" of a crime "should produce it."

That was the same response provided to Newsweek by Stone's attorney, Grant Smith.

"The Committee continued to make insinuations regarding Mr. Stone, but yet again failed to provide any evidence that he knew either in advance or contemporaneously, or participated in or condoned any act, by any person or group, that was unlawful, illegal, or otherwise intended in any way to cause damage or disrupt any proceedings of Congress, or any other governmental body," Smith said.

Stone's relationship with Trump has helped him escape legal jeopardy.

In February of 2020, Stone was convicted of seven counts related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. After Stone was given more than three years in prison, Trump commuted his sentence before he served time.

In December of the same year, one month prior to the Capitol riot, Trump pardoned Stone.

According to the New York Times, Stone has been affiliated with members of the far-right militia Oath Keepers who were charged in connection with violently stopping President Joe Biden's election certification.

Stone, who has not been charged with anything related to January 6, reportedly received security from six members of the Oath Keepers on January 5 and 6 in Washington, D.C.