Tag: trump pardons
Video Shows Furious Roger Stone Calling Ivanka An 'Abortionist Bitch'

Video Shows Furious Roger Stone Calling Ivanka An 'Abortionist Bitch'

Longtime Trump ally and MAGA provocateur Roger Stone flew into a rage upon learning he wouldn’t be granted a post-2020-election pardon despite extensive lobbying efforts and unleashed a flurry of expletives at former President Trump’s family, newly released footage showed.

In the video — captured by the Danish film crew “The Ark” for its forthcoming documentary A Storm Foretold, and first published by The Daily Beast— Stone is seated in a moving vehicle, seething at the discovery that there would be no 11th-hour pardon to shield him from accountability for his role in the effort he helped lead to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.

“Jared Kushner has an IQ of 70,” Stone ranted on the phone on President Joe Biden’s inauguration day, when then-outgoing President Trump could no longer grant pardons. “He’s coming to Miami. We will eject him from Miami very quickly; he will be leaving very quickly,” Stone said through gritted teeth. “Very quickly.”

His anger rising rapidly, Stone segued into a threat of violence, warning, “He has 100 security guards. I will have 5,000 security guards. You want to fight. Let’s fight. Fuck you.”

The political “dirty trickster” ended his tirade with a jab at Ivanka Trump, saying, “Fuck you and your abortionist bitch daughter!”


The Beast noted it was unclear who Stone was speaking to on the phone, but the film crew’s boss, Christoffer Guldbrandsen, confirmed to the publication there was “no doubt” it was Ivanka that Stone had called an “abortionist bitch.”

Why Stone would refer to Ivanka — who, according to the HuffPost, “staunchly declared herself in a 2020 interview ‘pro-life, and unapologetically so.’ — is not yet clear; however, Guldbrandsen told the Beast that Stone blamed Kushner for his failed bid for a second pardon.

“Aside from Donald Trump, he also held Jared Kushner responsible as being the guy who was the point man on the pardon,” Guldbrandsen said, noting that the beleaguered agitator’s vulgar rant had taken place in Fort Lauderdale on January 20, 2021.

Stone, a self-proclaimed pro-life advocate, has had no misgivings in discussing violence, a trait prominent amongst the right-wing militias he’s allegedly affiliated with, most notably the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. (His first wife Elizabeth "Bitsy" Stone operated a "pro-choice Republican" nonprofit and PAC for many years in Washington, which he supported.)

“I say fuck the voting. Let’s get right to the violence. We'll have to start smashing pumpkins, if you know what I mean," Stone said in a video clip released by the House Select Committee on Thursday.

“Shoot to kill. See an Antifa? Shoot to kill. Fuck ’em. Done with this bullshit,” Stone said in a video clip CNN obtained from the film crew last month.

Previous reporting by the Washington Post showed that vowing violence against Kushner is something Stone has done more than once.

“In two weeks [Kushner’s] moving to Miami,” Stone told a staffer on Inauguration Day, the Post reported in March, citing over 20 hours of Stone documentary footage it had reviewed. “He’s going to get a beating. He needs to have a beating. And needs to be told, ‘This time we’re just beating you. Next time we’re killing you.’”

Moments later, Stone rejected the staffer’s urging to pass his threat off as a joke, saying, “No, no, it isn’t joking. Not joking. It’s not a joke.”

In a car with the filmmakers that same day, the Post noted, Stone continued outlining plans for Kushner’s demise; this time, on the phone with a friend named Tom.

“Stone said Kushner needed to be “punished in the most brutal possible way” and would be “brain dead when I get finished with him,” the Post wrote in its report.

Stone accused the Post of attacking him using “a clever blend of ‘guilt by association,’ insinuations, half truths, anonymous claims, falsehoods and out of context trick questions.”

Representatives for Ivanka and Kushner didn’t return the Beast’s request for comment.

Stone has levied personal attacks against Guldbrandsen and threatened to file a $25 million lawsuit against the filmmaker.

Former Trump Aide Testified That Gaetz Sought Sex Crime Pardon

Former Trump Aide Testified That Gaetz Sought Sex Crime Pardon

A former White House aide told the House Select Committee probing the January 6, 2021, insurrection that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), one of former President Trump’s most vocal allies, sought something in return for his subservience: a pre-emptive presidential pardon.

The testimony, first reported by the Washington Post on Saturday, corroborates earlier reports that the Republican congressman had sought a pardon for himself and provides new insight into the nature of that requested favor.

According to the Post, citing sources privy to his testimony, Johnny McEntee, the former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, told committee investigators that Gaetz had talked to him about a pardon in a brief meeting one evening.

McEntee testified that Gaetz had said that “they are launching an investigation into him or that there’s an investigation into him” without specifically referring to the Department of Justice. The Post also noted that investigators had asked McEntee if he believed the context of Gaetz’s pardon request pertained to the DOJ investigation into him over sex trafficking allegations, to which the aide replied, “I think that was the context, yes.”

The former Trump aide also testified that Gaetz had protested his innocence and whined that “they are trying to make his life hell, and, you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.”

McEntee added that Gaetz had told him he would ask Mark Meadows, Trump’s last chief of staff, for a pardon -- a development the select committee had revealed at a June hearing. At the time, though, it was uncertain exactly why Gaetz had asked for the pardon.

McEntee said he no longer remembers whether the brief conversation with Gaetz happened before or after the Capitol riot, the Post noted in its report, quoting sources aware of the testimony.

McEntee’s sworn testimony mirrors that of former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, who told the committee in a deposition that he believed Gaetz had sought a presidential pardon from Trump.

“The general tone was we may get prosecuted because we were defensive of the president’s positions on these things. The pardon that he was discussing, requesting was as broad as you could describe. From beginning — I remember he said, from the beginning of time up until today for any and all things. He had mentioned Nixon, and I said Nixon’s pardon was never nearly that broad,” Herschmann testified, according to taped testimony that the select committee unveiled during its hearing.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Meadows aide, testified to the select committee in June that “Mr. Gaetz was personally pushing for a pardon, and he was doing so since early December, I’m not sure why. Mr. Gaetz had reached out to me to ask if he could have a meeting with Mr. Meadows about receiving a presidential pardon.”

The Justice Department kick-started its probe into whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws — specifically, whether he paid for sex and had sex with a 17-year-old and transported her across state lines — with former attorney general Bill Barr’s approval during the final months of the Trump Administration.

The probe, which Gaetz has repeatedly disputed -- and once tried to mock as “Gaetzgate" -- stemmed from a federal investigation into Joel Greenberg, one of the Floridian’s close confidants. In May 2022 Greenberg, formerly a Florida tax collector, admitted to a federal judge that he had solicited and paid a minor for sex and pleaded guilty to six sex trafficking charges. He is reportedly cooperating with the investigation of Gaetz.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied reports of his own misconduct. Last March, he wrote The Daily Beast, saying, “The last time I had a sexual relationship with a seventeen-year-old, I was seventeen.”

The following month, he penned an opinion piece in the Washington Examiner deriding the “swamp” for “repeating false allegations” about him and said that he had “never, ever paid for sex.”

“I, as an adult man, have not slept with a 17-year-old.,” Gaetz added.

A representative for Gaetz ignored the Post’s questions about McEntee’s testimony but told the publication that Gaetz never directly asked the former president for a pardon.

“Congressman Matt Gaetz discussed pardons for many other people publicly and privately at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term,” the spokesperson said, per the Post. “As for himself, President Trump addressed this malicious rumor more than a year ago stating, ‘Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon.’ Rep Gaetz continues to stand by President Trump’s statement.”

Last May, Gaetz’s close confidant, Joel Greenberg, formerly a Florida tax collector, admitted to a federal judge that he had solicited and paid a minor for sex and pleaded guilty to six sex trafficking charges.

Trump Pardons Accused Fraudster Bannon During Final Hours In Office

Trump Pardons Accused Fraudster Bannon During Final Hours In Office

President Donald Trump pardoned his former campaign strategist Steve Bannon on his last day in office, according to CNN, following a fierce internal debate over Bannon's fate that was ultimately decided in his favor.

Bannon faced charges brought by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York in an indictment released last August. Prosecutors allege that Bannon and three co-defendants defrauded thousands of donors to "We Build The Wall," a group raising money to construct a barrier along the southern border. The indictment charged that Bannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea siphoned at least a million dollars from the non-profit organization while claiming that the money went only to their construction project.

Attorneys and other Trump aides reportedly tried to discourage Trump from pardoning Bannon, but the president suddenly was keen to protect his former adviser, who has echoed Trump's lies about the presidential election. In fact Bannon has been among the most fanatical media promoters of unrest and even violence, as a leading voice in the "Stop the Steal" crusade that led to the sacking of the Capitol. That campaign apparently soothed Trump's fury at Bannon over disparaging public remarks about the president and his older children, especially Don Jr., whom he accused of "treasonous" behavior for secretly meeting with Kremlin agents during 2016.

If Bannon was auditioning for a pardon in recent weeks, his bloodthirsty pandering still gave pause to Trump's lawyers – who worried that the former adviser played a culpable role in the Capitol riot on January 6. For many weeks leading up to the assault on the Capitol, he broadcast strident calls to action, comparing the present political standoff to the bloody confrontations of the Revolutionary War and D-Day.

"All hell is going to break loose tomorrow," crowed Bannon on his January 5 "War Room" podcast, hours before erupting violence left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer. "And all I can say is, strap in ... You have made this happen and tomorrow it's game day. So strap in. Let's get ready."

Until Tuesday evening, Trump aides and lawyers thought they had quashed the Bannon pardon. Evidently they were wrong.

'Call Your Lawyer': Experts Warn Of Legal Jeopardy For Trump's Coup Enablers

'Call Your Lawyer': Experts Warn Of Legal Jeopardy For Trump's Coup Enablers

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Legal experts including a Harvard professor and a top election and voting rights attorney are weighing in on Sunday night's bombshell report from Rolling Stone naming members of Congress and the Trump administration who were involved in the planning and organizing of the January 6 rally and/or "Trump's efforts to overturn his election loss," according to two of the planners of the "Stop the Steal" rally.

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