Roger Stone’s Storm and Stormtroopers

By ED RAMPELL

Jan. 6 marked the three-year anniversary of the attempted coup and a new documentary focusing on one of Donald Trump’s key collaborators takes viewers on a behind-the-scenes look at the events leading up to the storming of the Capitol Building. Danish director Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s “A Storm Foretold, Roger Stone and Die” follows its title character as the veteran GOP operative and dirty trickster plots overturning 2020’s presidential election. Guldbrandsen was interviewed via Zoom in Copenhagen.

Ed Rampell: Tell us about your subpoena by the Jan. 6 Committee?

Christoffer Guldbrandsen: I was subpoenaed and five investigative lawyers from the Committee flew to Copenhagen and asked us questions, my partner Frederik Marbell and I. We met with them for five days and … handed over some clips that were shown at the Committee hearing.

ER: Roger Stone appears in A Storm Foretold with Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader [sentenced Sept. 5, 2023 to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy]. What’s the connection between Tarrio and Stone? Between Roger and the Proud Boys?

CG: For many… Proud Boys Stone is sort of an ideological inspiration. Lots of them looked up to him. At first, I started shooting with Roger Stone back in October, 2018 and I knew very, very little about the Proud Boys. I had, of course, read about them but they were not that much on my radar. But they kept popping up when I traveled with Roger serving as his volunteer security and hanging out.

I met Joe Biggs [convicted August 31, 2023 for seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 17 years in prison], I met Enrique Tarrio, at these fundraisers. What I witnessed was they were there to help him out with practical chores, or practical help, and provide security. And, he was close to Biggs and Tarrio. That was my first impression.

Obviously then, it accelerated during [Stone’s] trial in November, 2019. Tarrio and Biggs traveled to D.C. and offered support. And came back again during the sentencing in February, 2020. So, they were very close.

ER: What has been the connection between Elmer Stewart Rhodes [sentenced May 25, 2023 for seditious conspiracy], leader of the Oath Keepers, and Stone? And between Roger and the Oath Keepers?

CG: … I was, of course, in D.C. on January 5 and 6 [2021] with Stone, and there a group of Oath Keepers provided his security, was his security detail. This was, in particular, Joshua James [leader of the Oath Keepers’ Alabama chapter], who was in his suite at the [Willard] hotel and was kind of the leader of that small unit. I think there were about five or six of them assigned to Roger…

…The Proud Boys were much, much more integrated. For instance, on Nov. 5, two days after the election, where Stone was laying out the plans to replace the electors, urging, encouraging protests and coordinating with his allies. He was communicating with the Trump campaign that day, he was communicating with General [Mike] Flynn, and I also witnessed him having a conversation with Enrique Tarrio in the same breath.

Tarrio had watched, had been at an election party in D.C., and had been stabbed afterwards [on Nov. 4, 2020]. He called Stone and told him about this. And Stone then said he was waiting for some more information – he said this to Enrique Tarrio – from the Trump campaign. Then he cut us off and asked for a break so he could talk without us [the film crew] being there.

So, I had a sense they were extremely close and [around] Dec. 10 there were these riot-like protests in D.C., Stone was there again, giving a speech, inciting the Proud Boys, side by side with Enrique Tarrio. I mean, that was very, very close and they were in constant communication, on the phone and via the encrypted chat group.

ER: Leading up to and on Jan. 6, how well-connected was Stone to rightwing violent extremists?

CG: I think it’s difficult to get a piece of paper in between Enrique Tarrio and Roger Stone in this context. The Proud Boys’ leadership, through Biggs and Enrique Tarrio and Roger Stone was, from what I experienced, shortly intertwined. My point that I mentioned about that Nov. 5 [2020] situation, to me that was Roger Stone is, in my mind, and without any doubt, and I see it as a completely dry fact, Roger Stone is the link between the Trump campaign and the White House, and Trump the president, and the Proud Boys.

And it’s a very, very direct link that is manifested in our recordings where you can see Roger telling Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, that he’s waiting for more information for him from the White House and you have Roger saying in front of the camera he’s coordinating with the White House, and you have him in talks with General Flynn and you have him completely laying out the plan of how to use allegations of voter fraud to justify replacing the electors. You cannot get a more clearcut case, in my view, in terms of the Proud Boys.

ER: What is Stone’s relationship with Trump today?

CG: My impression is they’re relatively close. I can see they’re traveling together…

ER: As “A Storm Foretold” closes, you say “the events I witnessed, I believe they were only the beginning, it’s a warning of what’s yet to come.” What do you mean?

CG: The most important observation [regarding] Jan. 6 is not the tragic and violent events but the impact the forces that were unleashed around it, what they will do in the future... January 6 will become and is already a lightbulb moment that signifies the end of an era and the beginning of a new era. There will be a before and an after Jan. 6…

What we witnessed in America, that you could see… in the leadership of the Republican Party, their willingness to delegitimize the electoral process. To convince millions of voters not to have trust in free and fair elections. That is something you cannot undo. That is a force you unleashed that will only accelerate. I cannot predict the future, but that is a factor that can only lead to some great challenges…

And now, as we go into the 2024 election, there seems to be a complete dissolution of the division of the three [branches of government] of the political, the justice system… You have to hold people accountable for their transgressions, the illegalities of Trump have to stand trial. But this does politicize the justice system and thus delegitimizes it in millions of Americans’ perspective.

That’s why I say it’s only the beginning… Because what we’re looking into in 2024, it’s either Trump winning the election, if he becomes the presidential candidate, which I cannot see that he will not become, or him losing, which will also release some very strong forces. It looks extremely threatening.

That’s just the American context… This development in the U.S. will spread instantaneously to other modern democracies, or at least inspire instantaneously…

Ed Rampell is a film historian and critic based in Los Angeles. He is author of “Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States” and he co-authored “The Hawaii Movie and Television Book.” The full interview, which was published Jan. 4 in Truthdig, is available at https://www.truthdig.com/articles/like-a-raging-stone/.

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2024

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