New Videos Hint at Ties Between the Brains and the Muscle of the Jan. 6 Insurrection

Former President Donald Trump’s criminal indictments related to the 2020 election are all about criminal conspiracies, over allegedly fraudulent electors and plans to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. There’s one stubbornly notable omission, however: allegations that Trump and his loyalists directed or coordinated with the mob to storm the U.S. Capitol while also moving forward on a scheme to subvert the electoral count.

Two bombshell reports from last week help slightly in bridging that gap, particularly for two notable Trump insiders whose circle of involvement may be wider than previously thought — but only so far.

The reports involve previously unseen footage of pro-Trump political operative Roger Stone and attorney Kenneth Chesebro, an alleged architect of the false electors scheme. On or immediately before Jan. 6, Stone was surrounded by at least six bodyguards from the Oath Keepers, an extremist group whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy. New reporting shows Stone operating in a different world: the plan to send unauthorized pro-Trump electors in states where he lost.

Chesebro, one of the accused masterminds of that strategy, never seemingly had a direct tie to the events at the Capitol, until footage of him recently surfaced on its grounds that day.

The newly surfaced videos show Stone and Chesebro’s ease in navigating between the spheres in opposite directions: the White House’s efforts to overturn the election and among the rioters who swarmed the Capitol.

‘All Working Under One Umbrella’

In the Georgia indictment, Chesebro has been charged in connection with what has been called the fake electors scheme, a plan to have GOP officials in seven battleground states certify that they were qualified. He’s also thinly veiled, but not charged, by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith as one of Trump’s accused co-conspirators. 

Both state and federal prosecutors allege that Chesebro strategized and executed a plan to have GOP officials falsely swear in signed documents that they were “duly elected and qualified” to for vote for Trump — and send those allegedly fraudulent certifications to courts, statehouses, Congress and the U.S. Archivist.  

Given Chesebro’s lawyerly role in the alleged conspiracy, it startled some when CNN discovered and broadcast footage of the attorney tagging along with right-wing broadcaster Alex Jones outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

But Chesebro’s cameo outside the Capitol building did not surprise Temidayo Aganga-Williams, a former senior investigative counsel for the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“I think what it does show is that both the folks behind the political component and the muscle are all working under one umbrella,” said Aganga-Williams, who is now a partner at the law firm Selendy Gay Elsberg.

Before investigating the Jan. 6 attacks, Aganga-Williams worked as a federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York, the jurisdiction that prosecuted Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

“Like we're talking about, it's no different than a lot of drug cartels a lot of us used to prosecute — which means that there are those at the top who never engage in actual violence, who are not there when the violence takes place,” Aganga-Williams told The Messenger. “But they are the directors of the entire enterprise.

‘We Never Heard of the Guy’

Jones, who used his broadcasts to promote Trump’s “wild” Jan. 6 protest, worked closely with Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander in setting up the rally. Neither Jones nor Alexander have been charged with crimes by federal or local prosecutors.  

It’s unclear why Chesebro followed Jones around on that day, within close proximity of Alexander.

For his part, Jones appears to be distancing himself from Chesebro.

Asked why Chesebro tagged along with his client on Jan. 6, the conspiracy theorist’s attorney Norm Pattis replied: “You’d have to ask Chesebro.” 

“I have no idea,” Pattis added. “We never heard of the guy until recently.”

Chesebro’s attorneys Scott Grubman and Manny Arora did not illuminate the connection, though Grubman disputed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ allegations against his client, generally.

“Mr. Chesebro, an appellate and constitutional lawyer with experience in election law disputes, was asked by the Trump Campaign to provide advice on issues related to constitutional and election law,” Grubman said in a statement. “Each of the alleged ‘overt acts’ that are attributed to Mr. Chesebro relate to his work as an attorney. Mr. Chesebro did not once step foot in the State of Georgia on behalf of the campaign, and was not privy to the private communications of other individuals that are cited in the indictment. Mr. Chesebro stands ready to defend himself against these unfounded charges.”

‘Friends of Stone’

On Aug. 16, MSNBC aired previously unseen footage of Stone appearing to dictate the false electors strategy.  

“Although state officials in all 50 states must ultimately certify the results of the voting in their state,” Stone told his associate in Nov. 5, 2020, in an outtake obtained by the network—and recorded in Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s documentary “A Storm Foretold.” 

“The final decision as to who the state legislatures authorize be sent to the Electoral College is a decision made solely by the legislature,” Stone added.

Stone made those remarks even before the race officially had been called for Biden, demonstrating how Trump’s associates sought ways to overturn the race even before he lost. He was not alone in that contingency planning.

The same day Stone made that statement, Trump’s attorney Cleta Mitchell sent an email asking conservative lawyer John Eastman to write a memorandum “outlining the constitutional role of state legislatures in designating electors.” Eastman would later write a six-part plan to have then-Vice President Mike Pence block the certification of Biden’s victory, which would later become known as the “coup memo.” 

Eastman has been charged by the Fulton County DA in connection with Trump’s efforts to stay in power, and he’s an unindicted co-conspirator in the related federal indictment. 

At least for now, Mitchell and Stone have not been charged or accused of wrongdoing in either case. 

Beyond his Oath Keepers security detail, Stone is closely tied to another group whose leaders include convicted seditionists: the Proud Boys. He has taken the group’s oath, described its leader Enrique Tarrio as one his volunteers, and was videotaped warmly greeting its other leading member Joe Biggs with the words, “My guy, right here,” according to the House Select Committee’s Jan. 6 report. Leaders of both the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys set up encrypted chat rooms on Signal titled “FOS,” short for “Friends of Stone.”

‘Stuck in My Mind’

For former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman, Stone’s association with rabble-rousers has a ring of familiarity.

“I happen to know Roger Stone pretty well only because I had him in my office in September of 1973,” Akerman told The Messenger, recounting how he questioned the lifelong GOP operative about organizing counter-demonstrators opposing late Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg. 

The episode fell before the break-in of Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and barely registered as a footnote to the broader scandals of the era, but for Akerman, something about Stone “stuck in my mind.” 

For Stone, his association with Nixon also made a lifelong imprint. He tattooed a picture of the 37th president on his back, and he’s embraced a reputation as a dirty-trickster, who is willing to push the boundaries of the law in order to win at all costs. 

During the Russia investigation, Stone racked up seven felony convictions for obstructing a congressional investigation, false statements and witness tampering, but he ultimately had his 40-month sentence commuted by Trump. 

Stone avoided criminal liability for his post-2020 election activities so far, but Akerman believes his luck may soon run out. 

Multiple Oath Keepers members who entered into cooperating agreements with the government before their former co-conspirators’ trials last year did not testify. Akerman suspects that some of these witnesses may have information on Stone, and prosecutors may not have called them for fear of prematurely disclosing what they know.

“Under the rules, they would have had to turn over their prior statements,” Akerman said.

The Rolling Stones Defense

If prosecutors want to charge Stone with crimes connected to the Jan. 6 attacks, they will need something stronger than the GOP operative’s associations with extremists like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. 

After all, former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner noted, Stone is hardly the first person to hire outlaws as bodyguards. Just look at the Rolling Stones, who hired the Hells Angels to provide security at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969. 

“The Hells Angels literally killed somebody in the crowd,” Epner noted. “Nobody charged the Rolling Stones with that death, and they certainly did not charge the Rolling Stones with the myriad other crimes that the Hells Angels were committing at the time.” 

During the trials of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, federal prosecutors revealed scores of their once-private encrypted messages, along with photographs of their leaders posing with Stone, who flashed Nixonian victory signs. The evidence has been public and widely circulated for more than half a year, but no prosecutor or congressional investigator has accused Stone of committing any Jan. 6-related crime. 

Given the passage of time — and their absence from both the federal and Georgia indictments — Epner doubts that Stone or Jones will be charged in the 2020 election cases. 

Akerman speculates that prosecutors may be biding their time until U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issues a ruling on their pending motion to set a trial on Jan. 2, 2024. 

After that point, he suspects, “the government might feel more comfortable picking up these other people. 

Trump and prosecutors will meet in court again for a hearing on Monday.