Facing possible jail time after being charged with the obstruction of a congressional investigation, veteran Republican operative Roger Stone was assured by MAGA-loving Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that former President Donald Trump would offer him a pardon.
The new revelation comes from a hot microphone moment recorded by Danish filmmakers back in 2019, which was shared with The Washington Post ahead of their film A Storm Foretold, set to be released later this year.
“The boss still has a very favorable view of you,” the fervently pro-Trump congressman told Stone at a right-wing “AMPFest” gathering at one of the former president’s golf clubs, National Doral, before stating that Trump shared that information with him “directly.”
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Within Trump’s orbit, those who work for the ex-president frequently refer to Trump as “DJT” and “the boss” when not speaking to him directly.
“I’ll go down hard, though. I’ll fight it right to the bitter end,” Stone added, to which the congressman replied: “Yeah, but I don’t think you’re going to go down at all at the end of the day.”
“I don’t think the big guy can let you go down for this,” Gaetz added.
At another point in their conversation, Stone voiced little optimism over the jurors in the case, who he said weren’t his biggest fans.
“I may have to appeal to the big man because I’ve got… it’s the District of Columbia. We surveyed 120 jurors,” Stone told Gaetz, which was picked up by the hot mic. “Ninety of them know who I am, and they hate my guts.”
The congressman then fired back, concurring with Stone that he was “fucked” in light of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Neither Stone nor a Gaetz representative returned The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Saturday morning.
Stone, who was found guilty of lying to Congress by a federal jury in November 2019. He was found guilty on all counts of lying to Congress about his efforts to learn about hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
It wasn’t only Gaetz that Stone brought his frustrations to at the confab.
“I’m on trial in the District of Columbia. You can imagine the complexion of the jury pool, politically,” Stone complained to Turning Point USA staffer Benny Johnson.
