Get me Roger Stone! Trump operative before Jan. 6 attack lives in South Florida, of course | Editorial

The joke among journalists in South Florida is that there is always a Florida angle to any significant national story — and in this week’s explosive testimony at the Jan. 6 committee hearings by a former White House aide, the local connection was her mention of Roger Stone, a Fort Lauderdale-based political operative and Donald Trump minion.

According to Cassie Hutchinson, a former aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, in the crucial hours where he hoped to wrest back the presidency he had lost in November, Trump turned to Stone for help. “Get me Stone!” Can’t you just hear the enraged Trump?

Stone was at the Willard Hotel near the Capitol, operating as the founder of the “Stop the Steal” movement that helped organize gatherings before Jan. 6. attack, the Washington Post has reported. Stone, it said, had been in contact with leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, which also have Miami and Florida ties.

Stone is the long-time operative and friend who convinced Trump to get into politics. He saw Trump’s appeal before anyone else. Stone knew the score. He worked as a GOP political operative for Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. He partnered with embattled former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort at the political consulting firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly throughout the 1980s.

As a witness to Trump’s dangerous last days in the White House, Hutchinson testified that he asked her boss to call Stone, and also Michael Flynn, the day before the Capitol attack.

Why? Who knows, but Stone is the kind of guy you call when you’re in a jam. Trump was hoping a mob would pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reexamine the election results in several key states..

On Tuesday, mention of Stone was overshadowed by Hutchinson’s jaw-dropping revelations of presidential bad temper, presidential choking and presidential plate throwing inside the White House.

But Stone is very good at his job of creating political havoc — and he’s a survivor.

In 2019, Stone was arrested by a SWAT team at his Fort Lauderdale home, indicted on seven counts, including one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements — including lying to Congress — and one count of witness tampering in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

He was tried and convicted, but days before Stone was to report to prison in July 2020, Trump commuted his 40-month prison sentence. He pardoned Stone in December 2020, a month after losing his reelection bid to Joe Biden.

On Jan. 6, 2021, as all hell broke loose at the Capitol, Stone left town on a private flight from Dulles International Airport, according to footage shot for a documentary.

So what could that phone call to Stone that Hutchinson described Trump demanding be about? The Jan. 6 select committee investigators would like to know.

According to emails and interviews, they have been trying to get Stone to testify or at least view footage taken of him by Danish filmmakers who had been following Stone in the weeks after the 2020 election. They have repeatedly requested access to some 170 hours of footage.

Still, Hutchinson’s mention is troubling news for Stone, who denied involvement in the events after Trump’s loss.

Let’s hope the Jan. 6 committee finds a way to get the savvy Stone to testify.