Roger Stone Sells Himself As Trump's Inside Man To Gathering Of Conspiracy Theorists

At a book signing in Austin, Texas, political “dirty trickster” Roger Stone sold himself to a group of conspiracy theorists as a conduit to the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

On February 27, a packed house came to see Stone talk about his official and unofficial involvement with Trump's campaign and promote his books Jeb! and the Bush Crime Family and The Clintons' War On Women (which is dedicated to an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier).

The event was held at Brave New Books, a conspiracy-friendly bookstore that peddles -- alongside several of Stone's books and Flouride Filtration Systems -- books with titles like 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA and Alien Agenda: Investigating The Extraterrestrial Presence Among Us. Brave New Books also hosts a weekly “Conspiracy Comedy Open Mic” and has promoted multiple 9-11 conspiracy books with in-store events.

Also in attendance was Stone's co-author Robert Morrow, who has published bizarre sexual writings about the Clinton family and has wished death on Secretary Clinton.

The night kicked off with an introduction by radio host Alex Jones, arguably the leading conspiracy theorist in America (Infowars.com, his website, called him “one of the very first founding fathers of the 9-11 Truth Movement”), who was recently praised by Trump for his “amazing” reputation. Stone, who is a frequent presence on Jones' show, appeared late last week for an extended interview on Jones' program.

During his speech, Jones praised Trump for opposing the “globalist agenda” -- reiterating a previous claim that Trump's call to audit the Federal Reserve was evidence of his support of the conspiracy theory movement -- and described Stone as “the true Trump insider” working to expose the “great mighty Oz.”

In his presentation, Stone promoted an array of conspiracy theories, rehashing the unsupported claims in his books that the Clintons have covered up sexual crimes, sometimes with the aid of the Bush family. Stone also claimed that President George H.W. Bush had a role in the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981, and that Lyndon Johnson was involved in the Kennedy assassination.

Stone also discussed the recent controversy between him and CNN. The network recently released a statement saying Stone would “no longer appear” on the network in response to a series of incendiary tweets he had sent about current and former network personalities. Stone called political commentator Ana Navarro an “entitled diva bitch” and “pompous shithead,” while also describing former CNN analyst Roland Martin as a “stupid negro” and “fat negro.” Stone has also made similar comments about other media personalities.

In his speech, Stone was unapologetic. He claimed he had appeared on CNN only “three” times in the past 18 months, a falsehood he has repeated several times since being banned by the network. In reality, Stone appeared on the network 22 times between August of 2015 and last week, according to Nexis. 

Stone also said of Media Matters founder David Brock, “Wherever you are tonight, kiss my ass.”

Stone floated the theory that Republican insiders like Mitt Romney might mount an effort at the Republican Convention to deny Trump the nomination, and that he has assembled a team of political operatives in order to combat them. He then promoted the website StopTheSteal.org, which sends readers to a donation page for Stone's pro-Trump super PAC.

The question and answer session was largely focused on the Trump campaign, with the audience probing Stone for hints as to what Trump truly believes and what he would do on issues of importance to conspiracy theorists if elected president.

One audience member asked Stone why Trump had not yet fully embraced the 9-11 attacks conspiracies, failing to use his prominent position in national media to raise the affiliated issues. The questioner also noted that as someone whose organization has constructed buildings, Trump “knows that [World Trade Center Building 7] was wired for demolition.” (Conspiracy theorists have for years clung to the conspiracy that World Trade 7 was felled by explosives, in light of copious evidence to the contrary.)

The audience member added, “But at a debate he says, 'well Jeb's a nice guy he's just got low energy.' No, he's a criminal and he needs to be prosecuted for treason, and why isn't Donald Trump saying that now before they kill him?”

In response, Stone declared it “an excellent question,” and said Trump “would have gone to the next level with Jeb,” but Bush left the race.

A second questioner chimed in and gave a rambling response agreeing with the 9-11 conspiracies, lamenting that a “particular nation has a tremendous stranglehold over our system of government, our monetary system, and our media,” and raising concerns about how Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign was managed.

Stone responded by explaining that as a political strategist, he thinks Trump raising major questions like those brought up by the audience “might make us feel good, it might ultimately get us justice, it would not help him get elected. I would rather see him raise those questions after he has the power.”