Oliver Stone says ‘lawfare’ being used against Trump: ‘New form of warfare’

Filmmaker Oliver Stone said “lawfare” is being used against former President Trump in the various criminal proceedings he’s facing in 2024.

Stone brought up Trump in the context of his new documentary, “Lula,” about Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who served prison time in 2018-2019 following a corruption investigation. He sees parallels as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, connected to a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

“The charges on both sides of the Trump-Biden election are pretty wild — that [President] Biden is corrupt and Trump is corrupt,” Stone told Variety.

“It’s a new form of warfare. It’s called lawfare,” he continued. “And that’s what they’re using against Trump.”

Stone noted that Trump, who pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence in the landmark New York case, also faces separate cases related to state and federal election interference, as well as misuse of classified documents. 

“Whether you’re for him or against him, they are minor,” Stone said. “Corruption is a way of life … It goes back to the Greeks, the Romans, and before that the Babylonians, there’s corruption all through history, so let’s not be Pollyannas about it and think we’re ‘America the clean’ and we’re better than anybody else. That’s such bulls–t.”

Closing arguments in Trump’s New York criminal trial are expected to begin Tuesday, May 28. Trump has argued the case against him is a scheme by the Department of Justice to prevent him from campaigning. 

Last year, Stone said he “made a mistake” by voting for President Biden. 

“I was thinking he was an old man now, that he would calm down, that he would be more mellow and so forth. I didn’t see that at all,” Stone said on Russell Brand’s podcast. “I see a man who maybe is not in charge of his own administration. Who knows?”

Stone is known for his criticism of U.S. foreign policy abroad and controversial and provocative film topics. A four-time Oscar winner, some of his best-known films include “Platoon,” “JFK,” “Natural Born Killers” and “Snowden.”