Matt Gaetz Caught On Hot Mic In 2019 Promising Roger Stone A Pardon From Trump

Right before Roger Stone's trial in 2019 - where he was found guilty on 7 counts and sentenced to 40 months in prison - Matt Gaetz was caught by a documentary film crew assuring Stone that "the boss" wouldn't let him spend a day in prison. The "boss" and "big guy," as Gaetz repeatedly referred to him, was Donald Trump, who subsequently pardoned stone for his crimes. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this story.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Over the weekend, it was revealed by the Washington Post that Matt Gaetz at an event in October of 2019 had promised Roger Stone that Donald Trump was probably going to pardon him, if he was of course convicted in his forthcoming trial at the time. Now Stone was just days away from beginning his trial on seven different counts, filed against him by the DOJ as a result of the Mueller investigation. So he and Matt Gaetz are at an event and Matt Gaetz tells him quote, the boss still has a very favorable view of you. I don't think the big guy can let you go down for this. Since there are many, many recording devices around right now, I, I do not feel in a position to speak freely about the work I've already done on the subject, Gaetz said. And of course at the time, Gaetz did not know that he was being recorded. But Roger Stone was being followed around by a Danish film crew, was wearing a lapel mic and caught the entire thing on tape.

The film crew then let the Washington Post go through the audio, which is how this is all now becoming public. So was any of this illegal, including by the way, the recording of this conversation? Well, Gaetz apparently seemed to know that there were recording vice, devices in the vicinity. He may not have known that Roger Stone was recording him. And I love how Roger Stone has tried to come out and act like, oh, this, he shouldn't have been recorded. Dude, you were doing the recording. You were literally wearing the microphone that Matt Gaetz was speaking into. You had the obligation to tell Matt Gaetz that you were being recorded. That falls on you, buddy. So if any of this was in fact illegal, the illegal recording of a conversation, because it happened in Florida and in Florida both parties have to consent to it. Then uhoh.

Roger Stone, you're likely in trouble as you were wearing the recording device. So they can whine and and moan about this being an illegally recorded conversation all they want, if it was in fact illegally recorded, Roger Stone's the one who's likely liable for that for not informing Gaetz he was being recorded. Now the comments themselves, of course, don't worry, I'm working on a pardon for you. Well, ordinarily that wouldn't necessarily be something that could get you in trouble, right? Because Matt Gaetz was just saying what he was doing, right? The pardon was for something totally unrelated. Matt Gaetz wasn't a part of it. I've heard some people say, oh, this could be witness intimidation, witness tampering by saying, don't worry. We're gonna get you a pardon.

But this was for Roger Stone's own trial. So how could it be witness tampering when the, this was the guy that was going on trial and Gaetz had already told him you, you're probably gonna be found guilty, right? Gaetz was very forthcoming on that. You're gonna be found guilty. So that's why I'm working on getting you a pardon. So how is that witness tampering you might ask? Well, turns out that wasn't the only issue that Roger Stone was facing. As Mueller put in his report, there were numerous instances where both Roger Stone and Donald Trump told Mueller and his team just things that basically every other testimony contradicted. So that would've been where Donald Trump was most likely either obstruction of justice or perjury.

So what the DOJ could have done or what any prosecutor could have done is they could have called in Roger Stone to testify and try to get him to flip on Donald Trump. By promising the pardon or by at least even saying, because again, it wasn't necessarily.