At the end of a day in which bombshell after bombshell dropped in the ongoing investigation into the alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russian government operatives, a whole new twist to the story was revealed via confirmed testimony to the House Intelligence Committee.
NEW: Roger Stone and WikiLeaks exchanged private Twitter messages during the election. They show, among other things, that WikiLeaks sought to keep its channel to Stone open after Trump won. My latest: https://t.co/bEHbCi3n26
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 27, 2018
Roger Stone, longtime Trump confidante and former adviser to Trump during the elections, confirmed on Tuesday that in his testimony to the committee in September, he admitted that he had communicated with Wikileaks through an “intermediary” during the campaigns. This directly contradicts statements made by Wikileaks, who illegally hacked and publicly released the emails of Trump’s political rivals at the Democratic National Committee.
Roger Stone was interacting with @wikileaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. @NatashaBertrand obtained their DMs. https://t.co/WukYGlX9g5 pic.twitter.com/tbEz9bHIXu
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) February 28, 2018
Stone confirmed his testimony to reporters but refused to release the name of the “journalist” he says served as the intermediary, and said that he refused to reveal the name to the committee, as well.
According to MSN:
‘Private Twitter messages obtained by The Atlantic show that Stone and WikiLeaks, a radical-transparency group, communicated directly on October 13, 2016—and that WikiLeaks sought to keep its channel to Stone open after Trump won the election. The existence of the secret correspondence marks yet another strange twist in the White House’s rapidly swelling Russia scandal. Stone and Trump have been friends for decades, which raises key questions about what the president knew about Stone’s interactions with Wikileaks during the campaign. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.’
Roger Stone and Wikileaks directly messaged during election https://t.co/LKyVXjoaNv
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 27, 2018
Screenshots of the secret conversations between Stone and Wikileaks has also been released online.
As an adviser and close friend of President Trump’s, Stone’s ties to the criminals who illegally hacked the DNC can’t mean anything good in the ongoing questions about the Trump/Russia probe.
Featured image via Getty/Jack Taylor
