Roger Stone on Wednesday followed Michael T. Flynn to become the second convicted former Trump adviser in two days to suggest the president declare martial law due to losing his race for reelection.
Stone waxed conspiratorial about Mr. Trump’s projected loss to Democratic rival Joseph R. Biden and suggested he consider responding by deploying the U.S. military a day after Flynn did the same.
Flynn and Stone each served on the president’s election campaign, making them among his most prominent defenders to recently suggest he declare martial law because his bid for a second term failed.
Notably, Flynn and Stone were each charged with crimes in federal court and subsequently plead guilty and were convicted, respectively. They were ultimately spared prison time by Mr. Trump, however.
Stone told conservative media figure and fellow conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that he believes Mr. Trump should not rule out either invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 or declaring martial law.
“I think the president has to have all options on the table as to how he proceeds. The one thing he cannot do, Alex, is quit. He has powerful forces arrayed against him,” Stone, 68, told Mr. Jones.
Appearing on “The Alex Jones Show,” Stone, a longtime Republican operative, proceeded to make several baseless claims about Mr. Trump’s apparent defeat and predicted he will fight to stay in office.
“I believe he was selected by God for this job. I pray to God every day that he will not only not quit but he will be strengthened in his resolve to fight an epically corrupt deep state,” Stone said.
Stone also claimed during the segment that he “just learned of absolute incontrovertible evidence” about North Korean boats purportedly dumping American voting ballots.
Flynn, 61, promoted a press release the previous day on social media that urged Mr. Trump to invoke martial law and have the U.S. military conduct a national “re-vote” of the presidential election.
Sidney Powell, Flynn’s lawyer and a former member of the Trump campaign’s legal team, shared a similar post Monday suggesting the president deploy the U.S. military and postpone Inauguration Day.
Preliminary results of the White House race found Mr. Biden decisively beat Mr. Trump to prevent the Republican president from serving a second term in office as major polling had predicted.
Mr. Trump has refused to concede or acknowledge the results of the election, however, and he alleges without evidence the race was rigged and marred by a purported widespread voted fraud conspiracy.
The Department of Justice has found no evidence of fraud that would change the results of the election, Attorney General William P. Barr said Tuesday. Election experts have stated similarly.
Stone was found guilty of all seven felonies he faced as a result of the probe into Russian election interference conducted by former special counsel Robert Mueller for the Justice Department.
Mr. Trump commuted Stone’s prison sentence in June shortly before he was slated to begin serving a 40-month term for convictions of obstruction, perjury and witness intimidation.
Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian government official. He later tried to walk back his plea, and ultimately he was pardoned by the president.
Inauguration Day is Jan. 20.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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