Right-wing activist Ed Martin is trying to boost his crusade for a presidential pardon for political operative and felon Roger Stone by co-opting language President Donald Trump has used to promote right-wing organizing efforts against Democratic governors. “Mr. President, it's time to liberate Roger Stone,” Martin said in an edition of his “Pro-America Report” distributed to readers of his “What You Need to Know” email Monday morning.
Stone was convicted on seven felony counts last November, “including lying to authorities, obstructing a congressional investigation, and witness intimidation,” as reported by Politico, and sentenced in February to 40 months in federal prison. To Martin, Stone’s conviction and sentencing is “an injustice,” and Stone’s lying to Congress out of loyalty to Trump doesn’t deserve punishment but one of the nation’s highest honors.
Back in November, Martin called on Trump to give Stone a pardon and a Presidential Medal of Freedom on the same day. In his recent broadcast, Martin repeated his call that Trump award Stone with the Medal of Freedom, saying he deserves it for being loyal to Trump and refusing to go along with the attempted “coup” represented by the Mueller investigation:
And what he did, he was convicted of lying to Congress. I mean, Congress lies to us all the time. They're lying to us today. They're lying about what they're up to. They're lying about what they mean to do. They're lying about the money they appropriate. They lie all the time.
“Roger Stone deserves a pardon. Roger Stone has been a target of the coup that was meant to take you out of office,” Martin urged Trump in his broadcast Friday, making an appeal directly to the president:
We, Mr. President—Roger Stone, Phyllis Schlafly, Ed Martin, all these listeners, all these viewers, all these people all across the country—believed in you. And we know you made your promises, and you kept your promises. But so did we. So did a lot of Americans who have said, ‘Yes, sir, you tell us it's time to take a great pause. We believe you,’ and I do. ‘You tell us it's time to go back to work. I believe you, and let's do it.’
But we, sir, need you to not leave men and women who believe in what you do on the field of battle. And that's what happened to Roger Stone. He's as clearly a combatant of the battle to save the presidency as we've had in political life. There's no better example. I mean, General [Mike] Flynn is maybe the other one that I put there, the two of them that have just been persecuted for one reason, and that was proximity to the president, effectiveness at messaging, and then most of all, the inability to be owned by anybody.
You can say what you want about Roger Stone … He did what he wanted in the face of establishment Republicans, conservative Republicans, whoever it was, he was going to be his own man. When he threw in with Donald Trump, he was never going to betray him.
Martin added that when the country was being “assaulted” by Adam Schiff and the Mueller investigation, “One guy was actually out there saying ‘I won't give in. I won't play this game. I will stand up.’ And frankly, he should get a medal. After you give him the pardon, Mr. President, give Roger Stone a medal--the Medal of Freedom—for being a guy that was willing to stand up and never cave.”
A former colleague of the late conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, Martin became embroiled in a bitter schism within her Eagle Forum group over accusations of mismanagement, charges that he was manipulating Schlafly, and her backing of Trump during the 2016 primaries when many of the group’s activist leaders were supporting Sen. Ted Cruz. He now heads a group called Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, part of her splintered legacy. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the county board of supervisors in Fairfax County, Virginia, last year.
On Mar. 10, Martin told readers of his newsletter, “The Left is doing everything they can to blow COVID-10 and the fluctuating economy out of proportion.” He charged that Democrats “know Joe Biden can’t take down Trump, so they are hoping the Wuhan coronavirus will do the job for them.” Earlier this month, he had moved on to blaming multiculturalism for the pandemic.
