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In July 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would commute the sentence of Roger Stone, a political ally who was convicted of seven felony charges, including witness tampering, lying to congress, and obstruction, in relation to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Shortly after the news broke, a photograph started to circulate online that supposedly showed Stone and members of the Proud Boys flashing a white power gesture at a bar: This is a genuine photograph of Stone and members of the Proud Boys. Some may argue that this group is merely flashing an OK symbol, but this argument doesn't really hold up, especially when you consider that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Proud Boys as a hate group that espouses white supremacist ideals, and that white supremacists have adopted the OK hand gesture as a symbol of hate. This photograph was taken around the time of the Dorchester Conference, Oregon's oldest Republican political conference, in March 2018. The Willamette Week reported that Stone, who was scheduled to speak at the event, hired members of the Proud Boys to be his private security. The Willamette Week wrote: The photograph of Stone drinking with a handful of Proud Boys mentioned in the Willamette Week article was originally posted by InfoWars host Alex Jones on Twitter on March 3, 2020. The image was captioned: InfoWars Roger Stone joined the @proudboysUSA in Salem Oregon tonight. I joined them in spirit! This is a genuine image of Stone with members of the Proud Boys in March 2018. Although the meaning behind the OK hand gesture is a bit murky — it was, and is still, widely used as a harmless symbol for approval or consent — this symbol has been adopted by white supremacists as a symbol of hate. Here's the Anti-Defamation League's explanation of the OK hand gesture as a symbol of hate: And here's how Southern Poverty Law Center described the Proud Boys:
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