The Republican operative and close Donald Trump ally Roger Stone reportedly told an associate one of two prominent Democratic congressmen “ha[d] to die before the election” in 2020.
“It’s time to do it,” Stone said, according to Mediaite, which cited a recording the outlet reported was made at a Florida restaurant.
“Let’s go find Swalwell. It’s time to do it. Then we’ll see how brave the rest of them are. It’s time to do it. It’s either Nadler or Swalwell has to die before the election. They need to get the message. Let’s go find Swalwell and get this over with. I’m just not putting up with this shit any more.”
Eric Swalwell, from California, and Jerry Nadler, from New York, are both members of the House judiciary committee.
Swalwell is a prominent anti-Trump voice and a magnet for Republican attacks. As judiciary chair, Nadler oversaw Trump’s first impeachment, for seeking political dirt in Ukraine.
In 2020, Nadler said the committee would investigate Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence on seven counts related to attempts to obstruct the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016. Stone was sentenced to 40 months but never went to prison.
Mediaite said Stone’s remarks were made to an associate, Sal Greco, who was then a serving New York police officer but was eventually fired. He has claimed his dismissal resulted from his links to Stone.
Stone, now 71, is a veteran political operative and self-confessed dirty trickster who has Richard Nixon’s face tattooed on his back. In 2020, he was closely involved in Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden.
Mediaite cited an anonymous source “familiar with the discussion” as saying they believed Stone was serious.
“It was definitely concerning that he was constantly planning violence with an NYPD officer and other militia groups,” the source said.
Stone’s associations with far-right groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, culminating in the attack on Congress on 6 January 2021, have been investigated widely.
The anonymous source told Mediaite: “Stone had been at war with Nadler and Swalwell for years. He just hates them. He just wanted to get Trump back into office so these things would stop.”
Mediaite previously reported taped remarks in which, it said, Stone told Greco that Aaron Zelinsky, a prosecutor on the Russia investigation, needed to be “punished”.
“He needs to be punished,” Stone was quoted as saying. “You have to abduct him and punish him. That has to be done. It will be easy to abduct him because he is a weakling.”
Stone claimed those comments were fakes, generated by artificial intelligence. Asked about the comments about Nadler and Swalwell, Mediaite said, Stone called them “total nonsense” and “more AI manipulation”.
He added: “I’ve never said anything of the kind … you asked me to respond to audios that you don’t let me hear and you don’t identify a source for. Absurd.”
On social media, Stone said: “Trump-hating Mediaite says the have a four-year-old taped conversation in which they allege I threaten to kill two politicians – why don’t they post or produce the tape? Never happened.”
Greco, Mediaite said, said in a text message: “I don’t think your reader is interested in ancient political fodder.”
Aides to Nadler and Swalwell did not immediately respond to Guardian requests for comment.