Flanked by his attorney, with the glare of a CNN camera’s lights accentuating the furtive movements of his eyes, forever MAGA promoter Dustin Stockton made for an unlikely truth-teller Tuesday as he answered Anderson Cooper’s questions for the better part of 10 minutes.

Some of his friends from the world of competitive poker might have called those ocular twitches a tell, an unintentional sign that he was bluffing or at least unsure how to play the hand he’d been dealt. Given the fact Stockton and partner Jennifer Lawrence had organized Trump-promotional PACs and had helped organize a multistate bus tour spreading post-election conspiracy theories to angry Republicans eager to swallow the Big Lie about widespread voter fraud, it seemed unlikely that the Reno resident would hedge his bet on national television.

But then Stockton began to talk, and by the time he was finished I was convinced that his political pals in the disintegrating orbit of former President Donald Trump were probably screaming at their TV sets and losing their conspiracy-scattered minds.

Those tracking the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and the dramatic daily developments of the congressional commission assigned to investigate its origins, have already made public a staggering amount of evidence tying top Trump administration insiders as well as elected officials to the planning, instigating, and historical revisionism of the awful events that rocked our Republic. Stockton, who along with Lawrence gave a deposition to the Jan. 6 commission this week, displayed an unvarnished frankness with his answers.

He said he had invested his sweat and faith in someone who turned out to be a conman. In short, he felt like a rube.

This time last year, Stockton would have called you the sucker for believing the 2020 presidential election was on the square. He promoted the Big Lie and all the delusions that went with it.

If you were looking for examples of Trump’s true believers, you’d find few better examples than Stockton and Lawrence. Politico in November called the couple, “The Bonnie and Clyde of MAGA World.” Although never criminally charged, Stockton was associated with Steve Bannon’s scandalous “We Build the Wall” fundraising hustle.

Back in 2013, Stockton kept busy between poker games and driving a forklift by tearing U.S. Sen. Harry Reid a new one — a popular activity in rural Nevada. One conservative magazine called him “Mr. Tea Party.” He even self-published a book with his views of the movement. For her part, Lawrence ran the rabidly pro-Trump Women for America First PAC.

They were all-in for the cause. But then came Jan. 6, and the ugliness that led to five deaths, nearly 140 injuries to Capitol police officers, and the desecration of our country’s historically sacred places. They had helped promote and organize the mass assembly that day, he said, but not what came next.

“Since the event, my fiancé and I have given numerous, at-length on-the-record interviews because we really think it’s important to get to the bottom of what happened. We also want to represent the voice of the vast overwhelming majority of people who answered the call to come to D.C. who didn’t do anything wrong, who didn’t cause any violence, didn’t participate at the Capitol. Anyone who played a part should be held responsible. It’s torn our country apart. If there’s ever been a time for us to come together as a country, and kind of have a truth and reconciliation moment, I think this calls for it.”

Call it rhetoric designed to soften that “Bonnie and Clyde” imagery, if you will, but he has a point about the residents of Trumplandia. A lot of peaceful people were tricked into following Trump’s lead and thinking the worst of their fellow man.

In his interviews, Stockton is showing that it’s possible to awaken from the ether. Of course, getting subpoenaed to appear before Congress certainly qualifies as a motivator.

Setting cynicism aside, there’s something about a self-described competitive poker player admitting he’d been betrayed and hustled that sounds entirely genuine.

“It’s been something I’ve really struggled to come to terms with because this [Trump] was somebody we sacrificed for. We invested our lives and our time. And in a lot of ways the warning signs were there. We saw other people come forward from his inner circle. Essentially, he abandons people when the going gets tough for people. In some ways it’s embarrassing to think that in a lot of ways we bought into what in a lot of ways turned out to be a bluff or a con.”

Lest anyone suggest otherwise, Stockton’s lawyer Josh Ness reminded Cooper and his audience of the clarity of his client’s purpose.

“The events of January 6 were a stain on our democracy, a blemish on our Republic,” Ness said. “He recognizes that. To be clear, he’s a witness. That’s why he got a subpoena. He was not involved in the events of Jan. 6, and certainly not involved in the events at the Capitol. That’s an important and material distinction to make.”

Whatever Stockton’s motives, the methodical Jan. 6 committee appears determined to follow the ugly facts as they’re found.

Although Stockton’s admiration of Paul Gosar is likely to complicate his act of contrition when details of the conspiracy-promoting Arizona congressman’s role in the riot becomes clearer, it makes his conclusion even more meaningful for Trump’s followers seeking a way forward from self-delusion and outright lies promoted nightly by the likes of Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham.

Their text messages pleading for the President to come to his addled senses were followed by contradictory propaganda that damaged the country.

“They were doing the right thing as things happened, and yet they continued to mischaracterize it afterwards,” Stockton said. “Those text messages make it clear that they knew the violence was unacceptable. They knew it needed to be condemned in the most serious possible way, but yet they continued to downplay it, and underplay it, and I think it’s a big part of the reason here we are nearly a year later and there’s still no resolution.”

Then Stockton said something that is sure to put him on the outs with the political grifters, the “My Pillow” crowd, and the collectors of QAnon conspiracies.

Others played their roles and should pay a proper price, “But the buck’s gotta stop at President Trump. … And the fact that he delayed for so long before responding, I think really speaks ill of what his intentions were and what he was doing.”

Stockton is a reminder that even a Trump true believer is capable of clearing the fog and walking toward the light of a new day. 

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR.