The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - Roger Stone's Trial Was The Template For Donald Trump's Rigged NY Conviction - The StoneZONE

00:00:00.000 The Stone Zone, with legendary Republican strategist and political icon and pundit, Roger Stone.

00:00:11.120 Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents.

00:00:15.300 He is a New York Times bestselling author and a longtime friend and advisor of President Donald Trump.

00:00:20.940 As an outspoken libertarian, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts, spoken at countless venues,

00:00:26.320 and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the Cambridge Union Society.

00:00:31.980 Due to his four-plus decades in the political and cultural arena, Stone has become a pop culture icon.

00:00:37.320 And now, here's your host, Roger Stone.

00:00:45.220 Welcome, I'm Roger Stone, and yes, you are back in the Stone Zone.

00:00:50.020 Unfortunately, we did not have a verdict yesterday when we brought you our show,

00:00:57.280 but now we have the stunning development in a Manhattan courtroom in a Soviet-style show trial

00:01:06.020 with an indictment which makes no sense whatsoever because it doesn't delineate a crime.

00:01:13.020 But Donald Trump has been convicted in a record 11 hours on 34 counts.

00:01:20.740 It's a pretty good indication that the jury was politically monolithic in their outlook.

00:01:29.300 Here to help us bring that all into focus is my co-host, Troy Smith, the editor-in-chief of Slingshot.news.

00:01:39.660 Troy, welcome back into the Zone.

00:01:41.340 Roger, it's a historic day, and for all the wrong reasons here today, we have so much to break down.

00:01:48.220 But the first thing I want to get on the record and get your response on is what Trump had to say

00:01:53.120 immediately after this historic ruling in New York City yesterday.

00:01:57.040 We have a clip of that.

00:01:58.200 Let's roll that and get Roger's thoughts on the other side of this.

00:02:02.880 This was a disgrace. 0.65

00:02:05.180 This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt. 0.90

00:02:09.340 It's a rigged trial, a disgrace.

00:02:13.800 They wouldn't give us a venue change.

00:02:15.940 We were at 5 percent or 6 percent in this district, in this area.

00:02:22.860 This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.

00:02:26.540 The real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people.

00:02:30.600 And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here.

00:02:35.760 You have a sore respect, DA, and the whole thing.

00:02:40.100 We didn't do a thing wrong.

00:02:42.240 I'm a very innocent man.

00:02:43.940 And it's okay.

00:02:46.480 I'm fighting for our country.

00:02:47.680 I'm fighting for our constitution.

00:02:49.620 Our whole country is being rigged right now.

00:02:52.200 This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent.

00:03:00.060 And I think it's just a disgrace.

00:03:03.580 And we'll keep fighting.

00:03:04.600 We'll fight till the end, and we'll win because our country's gone to hell.

00:03:08.800 We don't have the same country anymore.

00:03:10.900 We have a divided mess.

00:03:12.940 We're a nation in decline, serious decline.

00:03:15.700 Millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists. 0.97

00:03:23.820 And they're taking over our country. 0.76

00:03:26.600 We have a country that's in big trouble.

00:03:29.020 But this was a rigged decision right from day one with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case.

00:03:36.160 Never.

00:03:37.080 And we will fight for our constitution.

00:03:39.640 This is long from over.

00:03:40.780 Thank you very much.

00:03:41.780 Why should others vote for anything to tell him?

00:03:44.580 Are you going to drop it out?

00:03:47.240 There's the Donald Trump that I love, tough in the face of adversity.

00:03:52.460 I have to tell you, Troy, when I first heard this result, at first I was numb.

00:04:00.080 It kind of reminded me when I was in the first grade and I heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot and then subsequently learned that he had been killed.

00:04:11.360 It was like that kind of moment.

00:04:13.820 I think it is a milestone, unfortunately, in the decline of our great nation.

00:04:21.260 But I also look at it and I see the parallels to my own situation.

00:04:29.120 And therefore, while I'm stunned by the results, I'm not surprised by the results.

00:04:36.760 In essence, my case was the template for this, the prototype, the dry run, if you will.

00:04:45.300 First of all, of course, there were the thrilling raids, the raid on Mar-a-Lago, which was completely unnecessary.

00:04:56.520 All the documents demonstrate that the president was communicating with the National Archives and the DOJ in good faith.

00:05:05.920 But the FBI agents, they rummaged through Melania's underwear draws. 0.97

00:05:12.040 They rummaged through her wardrobe.

00:05:14.980 They also rummaged through the Baron Trump, the president's son's room.

00:05:21.280 What could they possibly have been looking for there?

00:05:25.040 They rummaged through my wife's closet.

00:05:27.800 My wife was held at gunpoint for 13 straight hours, unallowed to make or answer a cell phone call until her cell phone battery ultimately went dead. 0.90

00:05:40.700 Then they wouldn't allow her to recharge it.

00:05:43.880 My grandchildren were trying to call her.

00:05:46.480 Our own children were trying to call to see if she and I were all right.

00:05:51.480 Then, of course, you have the gag order, which is entirely unconstitutional.

00:05:58.400 When I attempted to defend myself in the gag order, the judge in my case says it seems like the defendant likes publicity.

00:06:07.640 You know, maybe she's not read the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but I commend it to her.

00:06:13.620 Yes, when MSNBC and CNN and the other scum in the fake news media are vilifying you, questioning your patriotism, claiming that you were the link between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign or WikiLeaks and the Russians or the Russians in the Trump campaign. 0.67

00:06:35.480 Take your pick. 0.98

00:06:36.140 It's all false.

00:06:37.380 The government produced no evidence of any of it.

00:06:40.840 Yes, I did want to defend myself, but that was, of course, not allowed.

00:06:47.900 In my case, I think one of the reasons for the unconstitutional gag order, because my relatively modest social media following could not compete with the national news networks, was to hamper my ability to raise money for my legal defense fund.

00:07:05.980 It wasn't very long in this process that my wife and I lost our home, our savings, most of our insurance, my car, the ability to make a living either speaking or writing because I was gagged.

00:07:24.980 So just as they have went and gagged me, they gagged Donald Trump.

00:07:31.320 Then there is our request for a change of venue.

00:07:34.540 You just heard the president speak about that.

00:07:36.860 We asked that the trial be moved somewhere besides D.C.

00:07:40.380 Given the political makeup of the potential jury pool, denied by Trump's judge, denied by the judge in my case.

00:07:51.480 Then, of course, both judges made prejudicial comments that really did mandate their recusal.

00:08:00.940 Judge Merchant, despite his campaign contribution to Joe Biden and his daughter making millions off the Biden campaign, using this case as the focal point of her fundraising efforts, refused to recuse himself.

00:08:19.920 In my case, the judge praised the jury forewoman, who we learned to be completely corrupted, she had said during jury selection and during the trial, that she was vaguely familiar with me, really didn't know anything about me or the case or the Mueller investigation.

00:08:42.660 But an examination of her Twitter and Facebook page showed that she had been attacking me by name and in regard to this exact case in which she had been selected as a juror and that she'd been attacking President Donald Trump, claiming that anyone who supported him was a racist.

00:09:06.320 But the judge denied a motion to recuse herself. 0.94

00:09:11.800 And then there's the limitation on the defense.

00:09:15.560 So just as I was not allowed to call Bill Binney, widely recognized as one of the country's experts on cyber terrorism and counterterrorism, longtime CIA official, who would have testified and provided forensic evidence that there never was any online hack of the Democratic National Committee.

00:09:43.080 He was denied the right to trial, even though that was the underlying premise of my indictment.

00:09:50.720 In this case, it's very clear that Alvin Bragg made the case to the jury that these transactions were either part of or were utilized to cover up a federal election campaign law violation.

00:10:10.780 But, Troy, that's not true.

00:10:14.180 Otherwise, unfortunately, Judge Merchant would not allow Bradley Smith, who was the chairman, vice chairman and general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, probably the country's leading expert on the relatively complicated campaign finance law.

00:10:36.740 Now, he was not allowed to testify.

00:10:39.840 That's so that Alvin Bragg and his cohorts could essentially imply to the jury that there was an underlying campaign finance violation here when there was none.

00:10:55.840 Now you add all of that together and you see how I'm not surprised by this result.

00:11:04.420 The only question now going forward, and I'm not a lawyer, is the conditions of Trump's release pending sentencing.

00:11:15.740 The judge has wide latitude.

00:11:18.220 The judge could theoretically put Trump under house arrest, could theoretically require him to wear an ankle bracelet, could theoretically limit his ability to travel and campaign.

00:11:33.200 We're going to see what happens in that regard.

00:11:38.700 It's obvious that Trump will appeal.

00:11:41.780 But the appeals process in New York State, you would first have to go to the New York State Court of Appeals.

00:11:49.560 They call their trial court the Supreme Court.

00:11:52.360 Not really sure why.

00:11:53.700 You'd have to first go to the U.S. Court of Appeals before you could ultimately get in front of the U.S. Supreme Court because of the many violations of due process here.

00:12:05.780 So, how do you sum this up?

00:12:09.240 Rigged from day one.

00:12:11.780 Never any chance of a fair trial for all of the reasons I listed.

00:12:18.000 And I think the American people may be immune to it.

00:12:22.780 In terms of people voting with their pocketbooks, I just read, correct me if I'm wrong, that the Trump campaign has raised almost $385 million.

00:12:35.340 Is that correct in the short time since this verdict?

00:12:39.100 It's been hundreds of millions of dollars, Roger, and we've seen high-profile donors that normally wouldn't support the former president that are jumping in now that he's been indicted.

00:12:50.120 It seems to me that this is causing, as we've been alluding to here on the show for so long, Roger, there's a changing happening within the American voter base.

00:12:58.540 There are people that traditionally would never support Republicans that are now supporting Republicans, and, you know, we have a video I want to play and get your reaction on, and I think it also speaks to what we're talking about here.

00:13:10.280 There were several mainstream media figures, the regular culprits, the people on MSNBC and whatnot, Roger, that were celebrating this verdict, not realizing that the more they persecute Trump,

00:13:20.180 and the more open this becomes as this verdict kind of opened up a whole new level of political persecution yesterday, the more people that were not politically inclined, that maybe would have never supported Trump, are supporting Trump.

00:13:34.420 So let's roll that video and get Roger's reaction on the other side.

00:13:37.780 Thank you to this judge. This is a moment of sort of democratic reset, small-d democratic reset for us as a country. Accountability is happening here.

00:13:47.760 This was a jury that, throughout the process, was extremely attentive.

00:13:52.580 Miracle is too strong a word, but a really, a day for celebration.

00:13:58.160 The judge here, Judge Juan Marchand, who he's attacked repeatedly as corrupt without any basis for that, is a remarkable moment.

00:14:06.760 This was a fair process, so you have to live with it.

00:14:11.520 Fair process. Please cut me a break.

00:14:14.580 It's interesting that all of these liberal talking heads were essentially saying only days ago that they were disappointed in Alvin Bragg.

00:14:23.840 They didn't think that Bragg's team had proved their case.

00:14:27.240 They seemed to be bracing for a hung jury.

00:14:31.040 Now, of course, they have a completely different outlook.

00:14:35.300 I think that their euphoria will be short-lived.

00:14:40.000 One thing I would caution our listeners and viewers about, which is when there is a huge, historical, even cataclysmic event like this, you cannot poll immediately.

00:14:54.800 You can't take an objective poll within the eye of a storm.

00:14:58.760 You do need to wait 48 to 72 hours for public opinion to settle before you can measure the effect on the election, which is the real key.

00:15:10.440 I think you saw, Troy, the Trump battle cry, which is going to be the real decision will be made in November.

00:15:20.800 This is election interference.

00:15:23.560 But how they use this to hamper the president's ability to travel and campaign, well, that remains to be seen.

00:15:32.800 I frankly think if they are too restrictive, that too will backfire with the American people.

00:15:38.760 Well, Roger, my question to you would be, you know, how is it that the Democrats see, you know, I'm almost seeing a flip version of reality here.

00:15:49.320 The Democrats see this as a sinking moment for President Trump.

00:15:53.280 They see it as, oh, this is where we got him.

00:15:55.600 And as we just played, they're celebrating.

00:15:57.980 And yet politically, there is a somber tone, I think, of the Trump camp.

00:16:01.440 But I think, as you said, the ultimate tone is, you know, the ultimate decision will be made in November.

00:16:08.500 So who do you think is more right?

00:16:10.280 Do you think the Democrats are celebrating this at their own peril?

00:16:14.840 You know, everything about Donald Trump breaks the conventional rules.

00:16:20.100 I mean, the most predictable thing about Donald Trump is that he's entirely unpredictable, right?

00:16:24.820 So it's very hard to say.

00:16:27.840 We should not sit here and pretend that the fake news media, the corporate-owned news media, which monolithically hates Donald Trump and has no resemblance to old-time journalism, where facts are presented and readers can make up their own mind, they do still have a major impact in the country.

00:16:48.980 That impact is lessening with the rise of social media and the Internet as an information source.

00:16:57.120 But they are not without influence.

00:17:01.480 So I'm predicting that Trump doesn't drop in the polls.

00:17:06.520 I am predicting that he actually has a modest gain.

00:17:10.640 But the money flooding his campaign now in contributions, I think, is one indicator that this really just galvanizes his base.

00:17:23.980 I also think, as we saw previously, there were major gains in the Black community because Blacks could identify with what they thought was the weaponization of the criminal justice system, where for many years, Black people have felt that they couldn't get a fair shake, certainly couldn't get a fair shake under the 1994 crime bill as written by Joe Biden.

00:17:51.480 That's the bill that's the bill that requires the harsh mandatory penalties for the first-time nonviolent crime of possession of small amounts of drugs.

00:18:02.880 You can understand, faced with a law in which people who are caught with rock cocaine face much harsher criminal penalties than those who are caught with powdered cocaine, the difference between poor people and, say, rich white lawyers is pretty obvious.

00:18:24.100 So it is potentially possible that Trump will continue to make gains in that community, something we're going to be watching very closely.

00:18:37.320 Well, Roger, we have a couple other videos that I want to get your opinion on because, like I said, an outpouring of support for the former president.

00:18:44.800 There was an advertisement that was posted to his True Social page.

00:18:49.920 This was the first thing that he put out following the verdict.

00:18:54.100 It's an advertisement that I think is pretty powerful.

00:18:56.300 I wanted to get your thoughts on it.

00:18:57.380 Let's play that here.

00:18:58.620 With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state.

00:19:02.700 We will expel the warmongers from our government. 1.00

00:19:05.540 We will drive out the globalists. 1.00

00:19:07.480 We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists. 1.00

00:19:10.880 We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. 1.00

00:19:15.300 We will rout the fake news media.

00:19:18.020 And we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.

00:19:31.620 Very, very powerful stuff there, Troy.

00:19:35.120 Very powerful.

00:19:36.600 Look, we're in uncharted territory here.

00:19:40.100 They really understand that whether this conviction stands as immaterial.

00:19:46.480 In fact, they themselves know it will ultimately be overturned.

00:19:50.420 But the New York state system grinds slowly.

00:19:53.880 I don't see that happening before the election.

00:19:58.280 There is a way to appeal this directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

00:20:04.420 It's a due process issue.

00:20:06.240 It's very, very exceedingly rare.

00:20:08.900 I read a good piece on it last night.

00:20:11.460 I'm not prepared to explain it here today.

00:20:14.280 But perhaps if I were the president right now, I would be talking to some of the top constitutional lawyers in the country to see if that that is a potential area of appeal.

00:20:27.020 The president's lawyers have been surprisingly quiet.

00:20:32.400 I saw Todd Blanche, who was the lead attorney for Trump, asked, I think it was on, perhaps it was CNN, maybe it was Fox.

00:20:41.660 He was asked why he did not bring additional witnesses who could have testified in Trump's favor.

00:20:48.340 And he said, because we live in America.

00:20:51.900 I'm not really sure what that means.

00:20:54.660 I'm really not.

00:20:55.240 Well, and Roger, there was a press conference before we play this.

00:20:59.800 I wanted to get your thoughts on Trump having a press conference this morning.

00:21:03.760 We have a clip from the beginning of that press conference that we want to show to people.

00:21:07.500 But do you like the idea that now the gag order?

00:21:10.300 I mean, is it essentially lifted now that he's been sentenced?

00:21:12.640 I mean, he could pretty much say anything he wants now, right?

00:21:17.360 Presumably, yes.

00:21:18.880 Although in my case, it was clear that the judge did have the authority to maintain the gag order even after I was convicted and before I was sentenced.

00:21:31.440 She could have even maintained it after after I was sentenced.

00:21:37.700 Actually, I believe she did.

00:21:40.180 I was not free of the gag order until President Trump commuted my sentence.

00:21:46.300 And then, of course, that Christmas, I was given an unconditional pardon.

00:21:51.140 Well, because, you know, Roger Stone did nothing wrong.

00:21:55.440 So the judge actually has the authority to gag Trump now, even though the trial is over and he's been found guilty.

00:22:03.320 But prior to sentencing, that kind of heavy handed tactic,

00:22:08.940 I think I think would backfire badly on the government.

00:22:15.620 Well, we have a clip from Trump.

00:22:17.500 He had a press conference this morning at 11 a.m.

00:22:19.920 It's about five minutes.

00:22:20.900 Let's roll that now.

00:22:21.700 The public understands and they understand what's what's going on.

00:22:26.500 This is a scam.

00:22:28.060 There's a rigged trial.

00:22:29.780 It shouldn't have been in that venue.

00:22:32.060 We shouldn't have had that judge. 0.94

00:22:33.580 He should have allowed allowed us to have an election expert.

00:22:37.000 We had the best expert, most respected expert, head of the Federal Elections Commission.

00:22:43.220 He was all set to testify.

00:22:44.760 He was waiting for two days.

00:22:47.160 And when it was his turn, Bragg's people protested.

00:22:52.160 And the judge knocked him out, said, you can't testify.

00:22:55.140 He actually said, you can't testify for anything having to do with the trial.

00:22:58.540 You can say what the Federal Elections is.

00:23:01.660 Well, that doesn't help.

00:23:02.900 Everybody knows that.

00:23:04.460 But you can't testify.

00:23:05.760 So, essentially, he wasn't able to testify.

00:23:08.920 Other people weren't able to testify.

00:23:10.740 But with these people, they were able to use people salacious.

00:23:17.480 By the way, and nothing ever happened.

00:23:20.660 There was no anything.

00:23:22.800 Nothing ever happened and they know it.

00:23:24.800 But they were as salacious as they could be.

00:23:27.840 And it had nothing to do with the case.

00:23:30.000 But it had to do with politics.

00:23:32.800 And do you notice the timing?

00:23:34.180 The timing was perfect.

00:23:35.760 This case was dead.

00:23:37.180 It was dropped by every agency, every governmental board.

00:23:42.040 It was dropped by the highly respected Southern District.

00:23:45.660 They said, no, there's no case here.

00:23:48.220 It was dropped by federal election.

00:23:50.460 And that's what it's about.

00:23:51.240 This is about a federal election, not a state election.

00:23:53.420 You're not even allowed to look at it.

00:23:55.900 They took the state and the city and they went into a federal election.

00:23:59.500 They're not allowed.

00:24:00.480 The people from federal elections, Southern District, and Washington dropped the case.

00:24:05.300 Everybody dropped the case.

00:24:06.620 There was no case.

00:24:08.720 Cy Vance dropped the case. 0.93

00:24:10.820 And when Bragg came in, he said, this is the most ridiculous case I've ever seen.

00:24:14.880 And who would have a certain person, again, gag order, who would have a certain person like 0.96

00:24:19.680 this ever testified?

00:24:21.180 He said, this is essentially one of the worst people I've ever seen ever to testify.

00:24:26.880 He said, the craziest case I've ever seen.

00:24:30.260 This is Bragg.

00:24:30.960 Then when they announced I was running for president, a long time later, they decided to revive this case.

00:24:39.960 And they got a judge, Judge Marchion, who was responsible for another case that was also brought.

00:24:51.160 It destroyed the life of a very good man, by the way.

00:24:53.540 Destroyed the life of a very good man who went to prison once.

00:24:59.360 And then they just put him in prison again because they said he lied.

00:25:03.500 He didn't lie.

00:25:04.300 I looked at the statements he made.

00:25:06.100 In fact, he didn't remember something and they put him in jail.

00:25:08.960 Again, they've destroyed him.

00:25:11.960 With me for many years, he was an honorable person.

00:25:14.580 He was an honest man.

00:25:15.600 And if you look at what he did, supposedly, it never happened.

00:25:22.180 There's never been anything like this over the education of his grandchildren.

00:25:27.680 Over, he didn't report that he had a car or two cars on his income.

00:25:32.480 I don't know.

00:25:33.580 I wonder how many people here have cars.

00:25:35.480 I wonder how many people said, oh, gee, I have a car that's worth X dollars.

00:25:38.560 How do you even figure it?

00:25:39.820 And I guess you do have to report it.

00:25:41.260 But I would say probably almost nobody does.

00:25:44.960 Nobody even thinks about it.

00:25:46.480 They put this man, they destroyed this man.

00:25:49.400 But they put him in jail again because they didn't want him to testify.

00:25:53.980 They didn't want him to testify.

00:25:55.780 That's why he went to jail.

00:25:57.840 They put him in jail twice.

00:26:00.540 He's 77 years old.

00:26:02.900 Now, normally I'd say that's an old guy. 0.97

00:26:07.320 But I don't feel 77.

00:26:09.740 Nobody ever says that about me.

00:26:11.180 I'd like him to say, gee, we have to have a little sorrow for this man.

00:26:15.980 Because they just don't say that about me.

00:26:18.420 But maybe I'm better off that way.

00:26:19.820 I think I'm probably better off that way.

00:26:21.380 But they put him in jail twice.

00:26:24.660 And you have to see what they put him in jail.

00:26:26.380 And he was threatened by the judge.

00:26:29.640 This man was told you're going to get 15 years in jail if you don't give up Trump.

00:26:36.660 And he was told that.

00:26:38.980 You're going to get 15 years in jail.

00:26:41.020 And he made a plea deal because he didn't want to spend the rest of his life.

00:26:48.260 And he was told that viciously.

00:26:50.980 We're living in a fascist state.

00:26:53.960 He was told that viciously.

00:26:55.740 So you can go to jail for four months, five months.

00:27:01.040 Or you can get 15 years in jail.

00:27:04.820 So do a plea.

00:27:07.100 Almost who wouldn't do that plea?

00:27:08.920 Everyone does those pleas. 1.00

00:27:10.220 It's a horrible thing.

00:27:12.300 There's a whole group of lawyers that fight that.

00:27:14.160 It's so unfair.

00:27:15.180 It's so unfair.

00:27:15.940 But they destroyed his life.

00:27:21.460 Folks, coming up on the show, Gary Franchi of the Next News Network is going to join us to talk about Google and how Google manipulates information, particularly information regarding the upcoming election.

00:27:37.680 There's a major movement in Texas where there's a formal investigation now into Google's activities.

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00:29:49.820 You can also sign up for a slightly lower cost plan with a slightly different phone.

00:29:58.260 Of course, we also have a discounted family share plan that allows you to get up to three phones.

00:30:05.960 So if you want your communications to be firstly reliable in the event, let's say, of an electric grid shutdown, a total blackout, well, then you need the Iridium 955 phone and service.

00:30:23.280 How will you recharge your phone, you may be asking, since there would be no internet, no cell phones, no refrigeration of our food, no air conditioning, no heat, and no ability to recharge.

00:30:40.180 Well, available also is the solar-powered recharger for the 955 Iridium phone.

00:30:49.420 You're going to want that.

00:30:50.680 So, folks, please go to Iridium, pardon me, to sat123.com slash roger.

00:31:01.040 That's sat123.com slash roger to get your Iridium 955 service and phone today.

00:31:12.780 Thank you.

00:31:13.580 We return now to our programming.

00:31:15.860 Troy?

00:31:16.120 Roger, happy to have guest Gary Franchi of the Next News Network as our guest today.

00:31:22.560 We have so much to talk about as it pertains to big tech and some of the censorship things that they're putting in place heading into 2024.

00:31:30.360 So excited for this conversation today.

00:31:32.940 All right, let's bring in our guest, Gary Franchi of the Next News Network.

00:31:37.300 There he is.

00:31:37.900 How are you doing, Roger?

00:31:40.500 Thanks for having me back.

00:31:41.980 Thank you so much for joining us again.

00:31:45.100 You know, I follow you on X, formerly known at Twitter.

00:31:50.180 You really are an amazing journalist in terms of covering things that others are not covering that I think are vitally important.

00:31:58.640 I've been aware of Google's manipulation of information, which has a deleterious attack effect on elections since 2016.

00:32:11.580 I'm an avid follower of the work of Dr. Robert Epstein, who's done more in this area than perhaps anyone else.

00:32:20.320 There were some major developments in Texas, really, recently that you were on top of, which is why I wanted you to come here today and tell us about it.

00:32:31.820 Troy has had more time to study what transpired.

00:32:35.200 But I thank you for coming on the show and lay out for us what happened in Texas.

00:32:39.900 Well, Roger, it was a historic moment for free speech and for election integrity when Senator Brian Hughes,

00:32:54.880 he had brought forth the whistleblowers from Google and Facebook, Zach Voorhees, Ryan Hartwig, Dr. Epstein, as you mentioned,

00:33:06.520 and also Dan Schneider from the Media Research Center.

00:33:10.940 And the testimonies that they provided were absolutely groundbreaking.

00:33:16.820 And I encourage everybody to go and watch the full hearing of their testimony and their Q&A,

00:33:22.460 because what was revealed there is absolutely shocking.

00:33:27.280 The manipulation of search results, the suppression of independent voices on Google and on YouTube is rampant.

00:33:36.660 And it's all designed to program the people.

00:33:41.640 Because when you go to YouTube or you go to Google and you type in a specific keyword,

00:33:48.240 you're going to get curated results that are designed to lead you into a specific direction.

00:33:56.800 Now, you mentioned the 2016 election and our channel, The Next News Network on YouTube at the time,

00:34:04.660 was breaking every single record.

00:34:06.960 We had 70 million views in just one month.

00:34:10.120 And we were ranked the highest viewed YouTube channel in that time period.

00:34:16.880 We ranked over Hillary Clinton. 0.61

00:34:18.540 We ranked over all the major news outlets, Fox, MSNBC, CNN, the White House.

00:34:26.420 I mean, we were just taking the Internet by storm with our reporting at that time.

00:34:32.120 And if you recall following that election,

00:34:35.700 I remember it distinctly when Hillary Clinton came out and Barack Obama came out,

00:34:41.620 and they started blaming fake news.

00:34:42.980 And that's when Donald Trump, you know, took that term and threw it back and said, you know, CNN is fake news.

00:34:49.760 Now, following the election, my channel was targeted by multiple media outlets,

00:34:58.280 Forbes, The Guardian, you know, multiple online and major networks.

00:35:04.880 They were targeting us because of our effective reporting and because people were waking up to what we were talking about.

00:35:14.980 So we were under a direct attack, and it was, you know, YouTube at the time, they said, well, we can't let this happen again.

00:35:25.260 So come November of 2017, they did a radical shift in their algorithm, and they started weighting the search results specifically to suppress content.

00:35:37.440 And we noticed overnight in that November an 80% drop in our views.

00:35:46.040 It was overnight.

00:35:47.360 Now, this was just following the adpocalypse, which is a whole other discussion.

00:35:51.060 It almost crushed us at the time.

00:35:55.420 Now, what's interesting is that in that same time period, Zach Voorhees was working at YouTube.

00:36:05.580 And he had since released, he took documents, screenshots, all types of information, hundreds of pages of documents.

00:36:15.320 And in one of those documents, Roger, it was absolutely startling.

00:36:22.640 And I know we have a clip of him discussing that.

00:36:25.700 That would be clip three.

00:36:27.300 But before we play it, our channel was ranked at the bottom of the list.

00:36:34.080 And what you'll see in a moment here is Zach presenting that information to this committee on state affairs in Texas.

00:36:46.060 And he makes a very important point that my channel was ranked below the Russian propaganda outlet Russia Today.

00:36:53.380 Now, why would that be?

00:36:54.880 Why would my channel, it was actually even ranked below Alex Jones.

00:36:58.920 So why would my channel be ranked?

00:37:01.120 I believe it's because that we present hard-hitting, factual information and truth to the American people.

00:37:10.980 Now, I love Alex Jones.

00:37:13.220 Why would they rank me below Alex Jones?

00:37:15.480 I can't even imagine why.

00:37:18.760 But I think it's personally because, and I love Alex, I think it's because sometimes he can be discounted.

00:37:25.200 And I think it's because my channel presents news in a different way.

00:37:30.000 We cover a lot of the same topics, but we cover it in a different way.

00:37:34.060 And I think it was because we were just that much more effective.

00:37:37.800 So if you want, I think maybe have your producer run clip three.

00:37:42.260 I think it's only about a minute long.

00:37:44.020 Let's talk about news ranking.

00:37:46.080 News sites that supported Democrats were ranked with the highest quality and trustworthiness.

00:37:50.140 Here's a partial list.

00:37:51.920 Wall Street Journal, 8.53.

00:37:55.180 CBS News, 6.57.

00:37:57.780 CNN, 6.0.

00:37:59.600 Fox News, 5.2.

00:38:01.400 Russia Today, 4.57.

00:38:05.320 The Young Turks, 2.53.

00:38:08.160 Alex Jones Network, negative 1.56.

00:38:12.020 At the bottom of the list is Next News Network at negative 3.35.

00:38:19.820 Let me reiterate, the foreign propaganda outlet, Russia Today, was scored seven points higher than the Next News Network, one of the top YouTube news networks in America.

00:38:31.200 Since my disclosure, Next News Network has been permanently demonetized and will soon be bankrupted.

00:38:39.480 These sound more like the actions we'd expect from a Russian propaganda complex.

00:38:44.900 But shockingly, it's the actions of Google.

00:38:47.660 So, Gary, it was amazing to me, reviewing this information, how much of an effect Google really has on and a stranglehold on information across this country.

00:38:57.840 As somebody who has been really at the forefront of the attacks against these, what do you think should be done?

00:39:02.760 Do you think the way to address this is to go through Section 230?

00:39:06.460 How do you think that these entities can be regulated?

00:39:08.940 Because it seems to me they just have unregulated control over all of the information, basically, in the United States.

00:39:15.260 That's a great question.

00:39:16.420 And I think when you look at Section 230, this is where it's really – I get kind of confused.

00:39:23.060 They are – for example, they demonetized my content.

00:39:25.960 They called it harmful.

00:39:27.280 And they still haven't told me who's harmed exactly.

00:39:30.980 And Section 230 releases their liability from anything posted on their platforms.

00:39:38.360 So what's – why would they have to go ahead and suppress content if they are not liable for it?

00:39:44.460 That's really the big question.

00:39:45.920 And we can only say the reason they're suppressing the content is because they have an agenda and they surface the political thought that is beneficial to them or their agenda.

00:39:58.720 So I – it's – Section 230, I'm not sure how we can address that specifically.

00:40:05.440 But what's good to know is that what came out of this hearing is subpoena power has now been placed in this committee.

00:40:16.160 And I know for a fact subpoenas are being drafted that are in their hands, and they are quite powerful requests of Google and YouTube.

00:40:26.760 So we need to have more information from them specifically.

00:40:30.880 See, when they demonetized my channel, they didn't tell me what exactly I did wrong or who or what was said or which video was the offending piece of content.

00:40:42.040 Now, the original video that caused our demonetization was a video that discussed the Clinton body count as it relates to the suicide or supposed suicide of an individual who checked Jeffrey Epstein into the White House 14 times, the Clinton White House.

00:41:01.300 Now, if you recall, this individual was hung from a tree, and there was a shotgun, and it was ruled a suicide.

00:41:09.940 Initially, there was no shotgun found at the scene, so everyone was like, what, this is totally bizarre, and of course, with the Epstein connection.

00:41:16.000 So we covered that topic, and immediately after that video was published, we got a message from YouTube that says,

00:41:22.460 Are you feeling okay? Are you having thoughts of suicide? If you are, know that YouTube is here, and we care about you.

00:41:31.940 Okay, well, that's bizarre. So something in the video triggered this algorithmic review, and then that sent my channel into a secondary manual review.

00:41:41.300 And after they went through the channel, they said, oh, we've got to get rid of this guy.

00:41:44.640 Okay. Now, after five reapplications and appeals and pruning content from the channel, we actually deleted 28,000 videos and over a billion views, 10 years of work, and they still would not remonetize us.

00:42:02.440 So in these subpoenas, it specifically is asking for information related to our channel so that we can have an understanding of, once our channel, our channel is basically like a test case.

00:42:16.880 Once they reveal what specifically triggered, what words, themes, or ideas triggered the rejection of these appeals,

00:42:26.320 Now you've got a framework to understand where and what they are suppressing and the keywords related to it.

00:42:32.600 Right now, they just say, oh, well, you have to go look at the terms of service and just figure it out.

00:42:39.460 Well, if you look at the terms of service, they're so broad, you can't determine exactly.

00:42:43.880 And when you have 28,000 videos, how do you even know that the – what – I mean, we – the meta-searching and the work we had to do on the database back end to try to isolate anything related to themes or topics in their terms of service, a daunting task.

00:43:00.620 And that's why we just said, well, we're going to have to nuke it.

00:43:02.300 We've got to nuke everything.

00:43:03.220 And they still came back and rejected us.

00:43:05.640 So back to your original question, I think we need to have a clear understanding of Section 230.

00:43:11.660 We need to have a bill of rights for the internet so that due process can occur so that when someone tries to demonetize you or deplatform you,

00:43:22.400 that you have a specific course of action that's not vague and just a scattershot, here, follow these rules.

00:43:31.500 You need to have specific information, and that's where they don't provide that.

00:43:37.340 So I'm not sure if you want to run clip four.

00:43:41.100 This is a really interesting piece of video where he talks about the blacklists and subpoenaing Google,

00:43:50.260 which now we know that the Texas Senate has the authority to do.

00:43:54.340 So that would be clip four.

00:43:55.700 What recommendations would you have for this legislature to take action to address the issues you address?

00:44:01.780 My recommendation is subpoenas would be filed against Google for any documents that have the name blacklist.txt related to Google, YouTube, and their news search corpuses.

00:44:16.100 I would also ask that you subpoena their documents related to rankings of media outlets.

00:44:26.700 I've provided a supplemental showing a slide deck including such a list that is four years old.

00:44:34.760 It's a bit dated.

00:44:35.980 The open question now is what are the updated rankings of the media outlets that they have?

00:44:41.680 Also, you know, machine learning fairness is so huge.

00:44:48.940 I don't even know how you would even swallow that.

00:44:51.620 But if you could do, like, you know, ask them, file a subpoena.

00:44:57.560 Ask them for documents related to machine learning fairness.

00:45:01.100 And that is going to be such a huge bombshell that it just needs to get into the public disclosure.

00:45:07.380 So it's those three things, machine learning fairness, blacklists, and their media rankings is just is the start of the entire.

00:45:17.040 What might be a really cheap way to get at this information is to ask what the decision process was for demonetizing Next News Network.

00:45:27.240 Right. Like they're very large. And if you can get that information related to that case, I think that that's going to sort of illuminate what their decision making processes were for that demonetization.

00:45:38.640 Like they're still demonetized. They've been demonetized for like six months, like the top conservative news network on YouTube.

00:45:44.620 And the question is, why did they get demonetized?

00:45:47.560 And if we have the answer to that, we're going to get the answers to a whole bunch of other like censorship activities with the company.

00:45:56.640 Very, very well put.

00:45:58.420 You know, I've always thought often thought about whether there was a federal fix here.

00:46:02.980 Clearly, the federal government has an interest in all of this.

00:46:07.600 But then when you start to look at who has contributed money to the key Republicans on the key committees that have oversight, you'll find that Google is among the largest contributors.

00:46:21.100 I also find it entertaining that Nicole Shanahan, who is the vice presidential running mate for Robert Kennedy. 1.00

00:46:32.020 Suddenly, if you follow her feed on X, formerly known as Twitter, suddenly she's very, very concerned about Internet censorship.

00:46:42.840 To which I said, Nicole, if you're concerned. 1.00

00:46:45.500 Tell your ex to cut the shit. 1.00

00:46:49.520 I mean, Google is the probably the number one offender here. 1.00

00:46:54.420 That's where her wealth emanates from in a divorce. 1.00

00:46:59.440 She clearly must have some influence with her ex-husband.

00:47:03.760 That is a kind of an obvious one to me.

00:47:07.100 I'm not optimistic about federal subpoenas or federal examination.

00:47:13.020 But it seems to me Texas is a great start.

00:47:16.020 But that's really what we need.

00:47:19.340 Well, Roger, you bring up the federal element.

00:47:21.980 I think if you have had a chance to look at the the Weaponization Committee report that was recently published, I believe it was about a week or so ago.

00:47:32.260 And that was headed up by Jim Jordan.

00:47:36.020 And that document is absolutely stunning because it shows direct pressure coming from the White House to the social platforms to suppress content.

00:47:51.660 And initially, what's interesting is that YouTube kind of pushed back a little bit because they're like, well, this content does not violate our terms of service.

00:48:00.220 So they move the goalposts and and bow down to White House pressure to censor American speech.

00:48:09.080 Memes, books, content, posts, videos.

00:48:13.200 These are directives from the White House.

00:48:16.100 So the White House is in direct putting direct pressure to destroy the Constitution of the United States by directing these social networks to to bow down to them.

00:48:28.860 And when you talk about what happened, going back to the state level, from what I understand, what is happening, what we what we witnessed in Texas is basically like this is the first this is the first salvo.

00:48:44.960 This is the first fight.

00:48:46.200 And from what I understand, this is they're going to find other states that have sympathy for this this this type of Internet suppression, free speech suppression.

00:48:58.940 And they're going to hold more hearings at the state level and then take it all the way to the federal level.

00:49:05.560 Because at the end of the day, Texas House Bill 20 is designed to, you know, give people that due process.

00:49:15.960 And if we can codify something at the federal level, taking a look at the bill that came out of Florida and the House Bill 20, which is currently going to be reviewed by the Supreme Court because it's been challenged.

00:49:29.400 House Bill 20 in Texas was challenged.

00:49:31.260 Now it's got to go all the way to the Supreme Court.

00:49:32.720 So we've got a lot of different tracks that are taking place here with respect to what Texas is doing, going to the federal level with the Supreme Court.

00:49:40.260 And then, of course, taking that House Bill 20, codifying it at the federal level.

00:49:45.420 Now, in clip two, if you meant it, Zach brings up machine learning fairness.

00:49:52.940 And you talked about how Robert F. Kennedy's running mate is connected to Google and she's talking about Internet censorship.

00:50:04.620 Well, let's let's take a look at what Zach Voorhees discloses regarding machine learning fairness.

00:50:13.540 That's fairness.

00:50:14.980 Take a look.

00:50:15.620 Make no mistake, machine learning fairness is and has always been the real censorship program, and it is massive.

00:50:23.320 The goal was to, quote, program the public to align with Google's corporate values.

00:50:28.720 Those are their words.

00:50:29.520 This was a four-step process laid out by the AI ethicist Margaret Mitchell, who has since been fired for unethical behavior.

00:50:40.920 Step one, training data are collected and classified.

00:50:44.800 Step two, algorithms are programmed.

00:50:47.840 Step three, media are filtered, ranked, aggregated, or generated.

00:50:52.600 And step four, people like us are programmed.

00:50:57.500 That's a direct quote from their slides.

00:50:59.800 It wasn't just in one slide.

00:51:01.260 It was littered throughout the company.

00:51:04.120 This process was repeated in a cycle.

00:51:07.160 It was step four, feeding back into step one.

00:51:10.440 This sounds like something out of a conspiracy theory, but it's real.

00:51:15.480 Google rewrote their news algorithm, specifically trained on mainstream media stories targeting Trump,

00:51:20.600 such as his fight with Comey.

00:51:23.360 Systems like Real-Time Events, Real-Time Boost, and Hive Mind assign higher amplification scores to stories related to targeting Trump.

00:51:34.100 Google's internal documents revealed their stance on, quote, algorithmic unfairness.

00:51:39.180 They stated that even factually accurate representations could be considered algorithmically unfair and removed.

00:51:46.120 And let me just quote them.

00:51:47.220 For example, imagine a Google image query for CEOs shows predominantly men.

00:51:56.380 Even if it were a factually accurate representation of the world, it would be algorithmic unfairness.

00:52:04.540 In some cases, it may be appropriate to take no action if the system accurately reflects current reality,

00:52:10.380 while in other cases it may be desirable to consider how we might help society reach a more fair and equitable state

00:52:17.960 via either product intervention or broader corporate social responsibility efforts, end quote.

00:52:26.300 Really quite extraordinary.

00:52:29.140 Troy, your reaction?

00:52:31.000 Well, you know, Gary, it seems to me that, and I've experienced this as well, you know, it's not until the mainstream media,

00:52:39.780 you know, they always seemingly admit to what is being censored, you see?

00:52:44.180 And whether it be your reporting or things that I put out myself about President Joe Biden, you know,

00:52:50.980 I was one of the first to really hammer every single event that Joe Biden had when I had worked for a previous outlet

00:52:57.520 and to really hammer when he would, you know, he would look confused or he would do things that, you know,

00:53:03.980 people were talking about in the public square and they wanted to put me on a cross

00:53:07.740 because I pointed out what people were saying and saying, hey, we don't have confidence in this guy as a president.

00:53:13.660 And I notice now that Fox and ABC and CBS, they've kind of, you know, they don't do it as often,

00:53:20.760 but they do talk about Biden in the ways that I used to talk about him.

00:53:25.280 And it's like, have you seen that as well as where the mainstream press catches up

00:53:29.460 and then you see them reporting on things that you yourself were censored for?

00:53:32.840 Well, independent journalists like yourself and myself, we're always ahead of the curve.

00:53:39.920 We're closer to the news, even though they have millions and millions of dollars and, you know, studios and cameras,

00:53:47.900 they missed the mark.

00:53:50.000 And for example, like during the pandemic, when we were constantly reporting about Fauci's crimes, vaccines, 0.89

00:53:58.720 we knew the mandates were coming down.

00:54:01.980 We knew it.

00:54:02.840 Because we've seen, we have seen the, the, the trends and all of a sudden, but all you're a conspiracy theorist,

00:54:10.640 if you even bring it up and all of a sudden, what happens now, you got vaccine mandates, forced lockdowns.

00:54:17.180 And then all of a sudden, like, see, we're, we're always ahead of the curve and they're always playing catch up.

00:54:23.820 And it's been going on for as long as I can remember.

00:54:26.280 I mean, I, I've, man, I've been doing reporting in this capacity, even like, this is my second YouTube channel.

00:54:33.780 And we've had this YouTube channel for 12 years.

00:54:36.860 Before that, I had another YouTube channel starting, going back to 2006.

00:54:41.260 Okay.

00:54:42.660 And we were always reporting stuff that would eventually, like, I always had like this, this picture in my mind of Sean Hannity's producers or Tucker Carlson's producers over at Fox.

00:54:56.660 And they're secretly watching Alex Jones or secretly watching the next news network, because I suddenly find that the narratives that we're presenting eventually make their way into the mainstream news.

00:55:11.640 And then, and then I, I always like point back to it.

00:55:15.100 See guys, look, look what they're saying now.

00:55:17.320 It's remarkable, but it's been going on for a very long time.

00:55:21.980 All right.

00:55:22.940 Unfortunately, we are out of time.

00:55:25.340 Gary, where can people go to watch the next news network?

00:55:29.720 What's the best place?

00:55:31.800 Well, on Rumble, you can find us, just do a quick search.

00:55:35.020 You can also go to our X profile.

00:55:37.740 We post a lot there.

00:55:38.760 And then of course, on YouTube, you can find us there.

00:55:41.640 All right.

00:55:43.560 I want to thank our good friend, Gary Franchi from Next News Network for joining us today and helping expose the manipulation of information by Google.

00:55:56.220 Gary, many thanks for being here.

00:55:58.860 Thank you, Roger.

00:55:59.620 Thanks for having me.

00:56:01.880 All right, folks, on this Momentum Day, we're, Momentous Day, we're pretty much out of time.

00:56:07.560 I want to thank you for joining us in the Stone Zone.

00:56:10.660 I want to remind you that one of our most important sponsors are the great folks at MyPillow.com.

00:56:18.100 MyPillow.com.

00:56:19.460 You can go there and use promo code STONE.

00:56:22.720 Whether it's the dog beds or the pet blankets or the incredibly absorbent bath towels or the luxurious bedsheets or so many other great products.

00:56:34.940 It's a win-win.

00:56:35.940 It's a win-win.

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00:56:53.140 So please drop by MyPillow.com and when you do, use promo code STONE.

00:56:59.300 On behalf of my co-host, Troy Smith, please go over to Slingshot.news and subscribe there.

00:57:06.680 Also drop by StoneZone.com.

00:57:10.420 It's all free.

00:57:11.200 But until next week, God bless you and Godspeed.

00:57:17.060 A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him.

00:57:25.840 Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.

00:57:28.280 Roger Stone.

00:57:29.320 Where's Roger Stone?

00:57:30.420 He's got a baton.

00:57:44.640 Yeah.

00:57:46.380 Okay.

00:57:47.340 Yeah.

00:57:48.160 Yeah.

00:57:48.240 Yeah.

00:57:49.960 Yeah.

00:57:50.240 Yeah.

00:57:51.300 Yeah.

The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - May 31, 2024

Roger Stone's Trial Was The Template For Donald Trump's Rigged NY Conviction - The StoneZONE

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