Robert Mueller Reportedly Has Recordings Of Trump Aide Roger Stone Boasting About Coordinating With Wikileaks
Republican operative and longtime Donald Trump ally Roger Stone could expect some tough times ahead.
According to CNN, special counsel Robert Mueller has obtained recordings where Stone can be heard boasting about “talking to Trump regularly” early during his 2016 presidential campaign while reportedly also claiming that he should receive “credit” for coordinating with WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks was responsible for releasing the hacked emails from the DNC server back in 2016, which, in retrospect, seems to have had a massive impact on the results of the elections. Stone has maintained that he never shared any information about his correspondence with WikiLeaks with the Trump campaign, but Mueller is looking into the roles played by his aides — conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi and Randy Credico.
Stone knew that WikiLeaks intended to release the hacked information in October of 2016 but claimed he had never shared this information with the Trump campaign, something underlined once again by his attorney Grant Smith.
“We have said over and over again that he shared nothing with the campaign because he had nothing to share,” he said.
NEW: Investigators have recordings of Roger Stone that may contain evidence of him sharing info from WikiLeaks w/ Trump campaign.
In a later recording, after several WL document dumps, Stone said he should receive *credit* for coordinating with the group. https://t.co/QAZlSRQR3w
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) October 22, 2018
But CNN reports that the material obtained by Mueller shows Stone wanting to receive credit for the hack and the subsequent release of DNC emails, as well as the fact that Stone was in touch with Trump “regularly” during the campaign.
“Investigators are looking into whether Stone shared information that he believed was from WikiLeaks with members of Trump’s presidential campaign, according to a source familiar with the probe. Investigators have been provided recordings of Stone claiming he talked to Trump regularly early in the 2016 presidential campaign. Stone claimed in separate communications he should receive credit for coordinating with the group, the source said.”
Despite Stone’s lawyer claiming that “he had nothing to share,” Stone repeatedly gave interviews about the impending revelation before the October 2016 release of hacked DNC emails. In a speech he gave in August 2016, two months before the release, Stone had claimed to have corresponded with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“I actually have communicated with Assange,” Stone had said at the time. “I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but there’s no telling what the October surprise may be.”
Moreover, Stone now claims that his sole point of contact with WikiLeaks was Credico, but Mueller’s investigation is reportedly looking at the possibility of more backchannel communications the Republican operative had with the shadowy organization.
It remains to be seen if the reports about Stone having been in contact with Trump while he knew about the impending release of DNC emails are accurate, but there appears to be ample evidence that Mueller has not stopped exploring the “collusion” angle between Trump and Russia, and Roger Stone’s role in facilitating it.
