Roger Stone, a longtime Donald Trump ally and political advisor discussed security plans with an indicted member of the Oath Keepers the day before the January 6 riot, the House committee investigating the event heard.

Tuesday’s hearing focused on the actions of extremist groups and their plans leading up to the riot.

Stone, who was born on August 27, 1952, in Norwalk, Connecticut, to Gloria Rose (Corbo) and Roger J. Stone, grew up in the community of Vista, part of the town of Lewisboro, New York, on the Connecticut border.

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His mother was the president of Meadow Pond Elementary School PTA, a Cub Scout den mother and his father “Chubby” (also Roger J. Stone) was a well driller. He was also chief of the Vista volunteer Fire Department.

Since the 1970s, Stone worked on the campaigns of Republican politicians, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump.

Stone was also a political lobbyist. In 1980, he co-founded a Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm with Paul Manafort and Charles R. Black Jr.

Stone has been described as a “renowned infighter”, a “seasoned practitioner of hard-edged politics”, a “mendacious windbag”, a “veteran Republican strategist”, and a political fixer.

He has been accused of promoting a number of falsehoods and conspiracy theories over the course of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

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He described his political modus operandi as “Attack, attack, attack – never defend” and “Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack.”

Stone officially left the Trump campaign on August 8, 2015. There have been reports, citing two associates of Stone, who claimed that Stone collaborated with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential campaign to discredit Hillary Clinton.

However, Stone and Assange have denied these claims. Later in 2020, nearly three dozen search warrants were unsealed revealing contacts between Stone and Assange.

On January 25, 2019, Stone was arrested at his Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home in connection with Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation. He was charged in an indictment with witness tampering, obstructing an official proceeding, and five counts of making false statements.

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In November 2019, a jury convicted him on all seven felony counts. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison.

On July 10, 2020, Trump commuted his sentence just days before Stone was scheduled to report to prison. Trump pardoned Stone on December 23, 2020.

According to the House committee, Stone communicated on January 5 with Kelly Meggs, a Florida Oath Keeper. Meggs been indicted on a seditious conspiracy charge. On Jan. 6, Oath Keepers guarded Stone in Washington.

According to the committee, extremist groups discussed plans for January 6 using several encrypted chats, including one called “Friends of Stone” that included Stone along with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes.