OMAHA, Neb. – Roger Stone, the political provocateur and strategist once pardoned by Donald Trump from multiple felony convictions, accompanied his longtime ally on the road on Friday. They were together on a campaign stop in Iowa and on the former president’s personal plane on a flight to Las Vegas, two sources familiar with the trip told NBC News.
Trump was in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Friday to launch his “Farmers for Trump” coalition; Stone was present but did not take the stage at the event. The former president is scheduled to meet grassroots activists in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Stone did not immediately return a request for comment Friday night.
Stone has not served as an official adviser to Trump since the early days of his first presidential bid in 2015, but his actions in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have drawn scrutiny from the House Select Committee. . during his investigation last year.
The select committee pointed to Stone’s links to leaders of extremist groups, including a leader of the Oath Keepers who was sentenced in May to 12 years in prison for seditious conspiracy.
Stone also spoke with Trump in late December 2020, having previously used violent rhetoric in footage captured by a documentary crew.
“I said f—the vote, go straight to the violence,” Stone said.
Cassidy Hutchinson, then assistant to chief of staff Mark Meadows, also told Congress that Trump ordered Meadows to call Stone the day before the attack on the Capitol.
But Stone’s legal intersection with Trump is extensive. He was also central to investigations into Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election. The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee wrote in its findings that Stone “took steps to gain inside knowledge” for the Trump campaign on when WikiLeaks would release new treasures of its pirated material intended to harm Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.
In 2019, Stone was found guilty in federal court of obstructing the congressional investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign and his ties to Russia. He was found guilty of seven counts, including tampering with witnesses and making false statements. He was later sentenced to more than three years in federal prison, but Trump eventually commuted his sentence and later pardoned his longtime ally.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com