By Troy Smith for Rare
MSNBC host Ari Melber launched a series of new attacks against controversial political operative Roger Stone during his latest show, once again insinuating the false claim that Stone served as a point of contact between the organization Oathkeepers, and President Donald Trump during the events of January 6th.
Melber pointed to the fact that Special Counsel Jack Smith has obtained President Donald Trump’s personal cell phone records from January 6th, highlighting that Smith has also obtained the records of an anonymous individual along with Trump. Melber then showed a clip from Roger Stone’s sworn testimony before the Pelosi-led January 6th committee hearings in which Stone pleaded the 5th Amendment to a question from former Congresswoman Liz Cheney as to whether or not Stone spoke with President Trump on January 6th.
What Melber fails to tell you, in a kind of slight-of-hand trick, is that Stone pleaded the 5th Amendment to every single question asked by the January 6th Committee as required by law if one elects to assert this constitutional right. Melber, once again, selectively edited footage of the testimony in order to craft the narrative that he desires, in this case, that Stone was pleading the 5th on this single question about contact with Trump on January 6th in order to claim, that Stone did so because the answer would have been affirmative and thus in Melber’s attack, incriminating,
Contacted by Rare, Stone’s lawyer, Grant Smith, emphatically denied that Stone spoke to the President on January 5th or 6th and that the phone records Melber reports have been obtained by (Jack) Smith, will prove that.
Being a lawyer himself, it is unquestionable that Melber understands that Stone pleaded the 5th to every question, and simply omitted the facts in order to create a hysteria surrounding Trump, Stone, and January 6th. Melber falsely refers to Stone as a ‘defendant’ in this segment, even though Stone is not a defendant in any current action. Melber can be quoted as saying during this segment….
Let’s walk through, in plain English, what we just saw there. The second clip is of a defendant, Roger Stone, who we’ve heard so much about, basically saying that to truthfully answer whether they spoke that day, him, and the then-loser of the 2020 Election, outgoing President Trump, if he admitted about or spoke about whether they had that contact, that could implicate him in a crime. That’s not good, but as we’ve said, it’s also his right, in that kind of proceeding, to invoke the fifth amendment, but that would go to him not wanting to say it. If there is enough phone data swirling around, that Jack Smith has of the President’s phone, phone’s the President used, or Roger Stone’s or others, they may be able to prove up that question in court without Stone’s testimony.
Ari Melber on Roger Stone
Melber then brings on a guest, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, David Kelley. We have previously reported on Kelley’s relationship with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. After Chris Christie’s brother Todd Christie had been charged with several trading violations in the early 2000s, Kelley chose not to prosecute Todd Christie. Subsequently, after his retirement from the position of U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2005, Kelley went on to receive an extremely lucrative monitoring contract from then-Governor Chris Christie.
Contacted by Rare, Stone said “Kelley took a bribe in return for giving Chris Christie’s brother a pass on insider trading in a case in which everyone else involved was charged. Kelley is corrupt and belongs in prison. Of all of the people that this demented lunatic Melber brings on the air and pretends is unbiased or authoritative because of his former position Melber picks this ethically challenged shyster”
During his appearance on The Beat with Ari Melber, Kelley also makes the false claim that Roger Stone served as a point of contact between the Oathkeepers and the White House on January 6th. Kelley can be quoted as saying…
In other words, let’s just hypothetically, he makes a phone call to Roger Stone, and then suddenly the Oathkeepers are off and running to the Capitol, so it can be very compelling evidence about connecting the dots and drawing connections between phone calls to particular people, and then incidents that happened in the wake of those calls
Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York David Kelley on The Beat with Ari Melber
Stone’s attorney, Grant Smith, Esquire, said Kelley’s speculation was false, malicious and irresponsible as well as defamatory. See Melber’s full segment on Trump and Roger Stone below…
Ari Melber has a history of using false statements and selectively edited footage to attack Roger Stone. In one segment run by the host just three months ago, Melber used the false testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to attack Stone. In her testimony, Cassidy Hutchinson claims that that then-President Trump directed Mark Meadows to place a call to Roger Stone on January 5th, 2021. Hutchinson claims that Meadows was informing Roger Stone of “what was going to happen” on January 6th. Hutchinson recently moved to extensively amend her sworn testimony in an obvious attempt to avoid a perjury referral to the DOJ now that Republicans control the House, and many aspects of her testimony appear to be material false .
Stone has asserted that he had no contact with Trump or any Trump staff member from December 28, 2020, until March 24th, 2021. We covered Melber’s airing of the Cassidy Hutchinson testimony at the time, receiving the following statement from Mr. Stone…
Some in the media have maintained that I am a link between “extremist” groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and members of President Donald Trump’s inner circle, as well as President Trump himself. This is entirely false, given that I had no contact with President Trump or any member of his staff from December 27th, 2020 until March 24, 2021—when President Trump invited me and my wife to visit him at Mar-a-Lago, after my wife’s completion of successful treatments for stage 4 cancer
https://rare.us/rare-politics/ari-melber-cant-stop-lying-about-roger-stone/
Considering that Stone has stated publicly that he had no contact with Trump or his staff during the month of January 2021, Melber’s insinuation that Special Counsel Jack Smith has obtained Stone’s phone records and uncovered some kind of communication between Trump and Stone on January 6th is completely baseless.
As for Stone’s connection to the Oathkeepers on January 6th, we have also previously debunked the claim that Stone was heavily involved with that particular organization on January 6th.
According to Stone’s attorneys upon learning of the rally on January 6th, Stone attempted to hire security for the entirety of his stay in Washington D.C., and because of the influx of people to Washington D.C. at that time, all private security and off-duty police officers, who had previously legally provided security for Stone and his family during his trial in D.C. were unavailable. The Oathkeepers offered to provide Stone security for as volunteers. Stone accepted. Stone’s lawyer insists that Stone had no knowledge of the actions of the Oathkeepers on that day, and Stone himself has made that clear from the very beginning. Neither the trials of the Oathkeepers or Proud Boys has produced any evidence or witness testimony to the contrary. Melber knows this yet he continues to defame Stone on the basis of baseless speculation.
In fact , Oathkeeper Joshua James, who is among those who provided security to Stone, has testified under oath in a New York City Police Department proceeding that Stone had neither advanced knowledge, or any involvement in the actions of the housekeepers on January 6th. Rare has obtained a copy of this sworn testimony which is sealed
Stone even encouraged those gathered to protest, during a speech delivered at the Supreme Court on January 5th, 2021, to avoid violence at all costs. We have a clip of that speech below. Stone can be quoted as saying during his speech at the Supreme Court on January 5th, 2021, “Tomorrow, when the left tries to bait you, let’s be very clear. We renounce violence. They are the violent ones. do not be goaded into violence”. Ari Melber and MSNBC have not reported on this video, nor did the January 6th committee include it in their report, despite the fact that Rare has confirmed that the committee had obtained this video.
Roger Stone renounces violence on January 5th….@MSNBC and @AriMelber are disgraceful pic.twitter.com/f4PUmk3pMC
— Rare (@Rare) September 2, 2023
The facts are clear. Roger Stone did not encourage violence on January 6th, he warned against it. Stone was not aware of the actions or plans of the Oathkeepers on January 6th, 2021, nor did he have any contact with the Trump or his staff from December 27th, 2020, until March of 2021. Stone is not a defendant in any current proceeding, and was in no way involved in the events at the Capitol on January 6th.
The repeated, slanderous attacks from Ari Melber and MSNBC against Stone only highlight his effectiveness as a political operative. The fact that Melber brought David Kelley, a Chris Christie ally, who Melber also claims to have worked for in the past, onto the show to make additional allegations is simply icing on the cake.
If there’s one thing that the mainstream media loves to do, it’s accusing their opposition of exactly what they themselves are doing. Remember, Melber claims that the events of January 6th were an act of sedition. Once again, Melber omits the facts. The protestors entered the building, with assistance from the Capitol Police, which has now been proven by the January 6th footage released by new House Speaker Mike Johnson, as Republican members were objecting to the results of the 2020 Election, not as they were being certified.
In fact, it was only after the protestors had been cleared out, in the dead of night, that Congress eventually certified Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 Election, with those who had planned to voice their concerns about the vote counts being forced into silence by a collective and targeted guilt.
The protestors did not stop the certification of the Election, they actually stopped the objection, further calling into question the ‘seditious nature’, as Melber describes it, of those involved in the events at the Capitol on January 6th.
If it isn’t clear from his attacks on Stone, Melber will obviously obfuscate any fact necessary in order to create his desired narrative.
Ari Melber is a twisted weirdo, as well as a pathological liar with an unhealthy obsession with me. The man has no credibility but he does have deep psychological problems and needs to see a psychiatrist and get the help he needs ” Stone told Rare.
