On Thursday, The Western Journal spoke with political consultant Roger Stone regarding recent allegations levied by Mediaite.
Last week, the outlet published what it said was audio from 2020 of Stone purportedly contemplating the assassination of Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler of New York and Eric Swalwell of California.
Stone, an ally and confidante of former President Donald Trump, vehemently denies the audio’s authenticity.
Mediaite said the clip came from an anonymous source who refused to come forward and had been “lightly edited” to protect the source’s identity.
Stone tested the audio using artificial intelligence detection software from AI Voice Detector.
Though The Western Journal could not verify the software’s accuracy, the app’s official X account confirmed it tested the audio and found the clip to have a 92.63 percent chance of being AI-generated.
They included background music and noise to bypass the other AI Detectors. However, our https://t.co/XvTcSDy0pB detected that this recording was produced using an AI voice. Nice Try! pic.twitter.com/HfkzXuqZZS
— AI Voice Detector (@aivoicedetector) January 13, 2024
Career music producer and sound technician Hitesh Ceon — who certainly has an informed opinion on all things audio given his expertise — believes the software’s findings are authentic.
Here is the background noise separate as well, in case you want that. pic.twitter.com/Pm5s59m6LT
— Hitesh Ceon (@hiteshceon) January 14, 2024
“I have spent a lot of time on vocal recording, vocal editing, melodyning, tuning vocals. And that has given me a pretty good ear for what sounds natural in terms of tonal flow, inflection, character and vocal qualities. I also do a lot of sound design and all kinds of audio processing, mixing and engineering,” Ceon told the news outlet Rare.
“So when I heard the recording of Roger Stone, there was something that immediately struck me as unnatural about the tonal flow, especially on the part that starts just after ‘how brave the rest of them are’ on the recording,” he said. “The background noise and the filtered/low quality sound of the recording is very useful for masking any very obvious flaws in the AI generated voice.”
The following is a transcript of Stone’s remarks to The Western Journal on Thursday.
What are your comments regarding the Mediaite story?
This is really very simple. When I was first contacted by Mediaite — which is not an objective journalistic enterprise, it’s a left-of-center propaganda front run by former MSNBC talking head Dan Abrams — they wanted me to comment on an audio which they allegedly had, but they wouldn’t post the audio, nor would they let me listen to the audio. But they read me a transcript of what they said the audio said, and I said, ‘Well, since I’ve never said any of those things, any audio you have or any audio you would post would have to be, an AI-generated fabrication.’
So, about three days later, they then posted an audio, which I have had professionally analyzed, and it is most definitely AI-generated. [It] has very, very substantial background noise, which is often used to mask the creation of a voice in this audio context.
I posted online the results of two forensic examinations of this audio. I never said it. I never said the things attributed to me. This was allegedly, by the way, four years ago. And it’s just the latest witch hunt.
What’s disturbing, but not surprising, is how all of the fake news media — the same people who insisted the Steele dossier was real when it wasn’t, the same people who insisted that Hunter Biden’s laptop had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation and wasn’t real when it was, the same people who insisted that the COVID-19 vaccination was safe and effective, the same people who insisted Trump was guilty of treason in the Ukrainian matter — now insist, without any response from me, that I threatened two Democratic congressman, which I most definitely did not do.
What do you think about the fact that, one, they used an anonymous source who refused to come forward, and two, they admitted in the Mediaite piece that the audio was “lightly edited”?
They say in the piece that it was — the woman says in a video in which the audio is present — that it was ‘lightly edited.’ Then on her own Twitter feed later, when she’s questioned by Joy Reid and George Conway, she then says, ‘It’s not edited.’
So which is it? Which is it? … And then secondarily, why should we believe this audio, which I believe was never actually said, but they claim it was at a certain Italian restaurant that I’m known to frequent in Fort Lauderdale?
Do you trust the establishment media?
They say that my friend, former New York City police officer Sal Greco, was present. How do we know that? It’s not in the audio. It doesn’t say, ‘Hi, I’m here at Café Europa with my good friend Sal.’ How do we know that? Just because they have a source that says that? Why should they be believed, given the track record of inaccuracy when it comes to anything or anyone who is associated with Donald Trump?
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Obviously, if you go online, many, many, many people are urging me to sue them, and I’m examining that. In all honesty, given the New York Times versus Sullivan standard for defamation, the bar is very high. Also, lawsuits like that cost an enormous amount of money.
I am contemplating it. Obviously, I have to — and I’m talking to attorneys — but I would have to believe that I could win, then I’d have to go raise the money to finance the lawsuit. Because since the Mueller witch hunt basically bankrupted my wife and I over two years, I would have to go to StoneDefenseFund.com and raise the money for such a lawsuit.
And I’d have to believe that the lawsuit, under the current libel and slander or defamation laws, could succeed.
In the meantime, I intend to continue to post on social media, and at my website, StoneZone.com, the evidence — I should say the proof — that this audio is AI-generated.
