Although there remain a whole array of controversies enveloping the Trump administration, the Russia investigation has hardly vaporized. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is continuing his work — despite Republicans’ best efforts — and The New York Times now has a new report about just how he’s zeroed in on past Trump adviser Roger Stone.
The often controversial operative only maintained an official position with the Trump team for a very early part of the 2016 election cycle, but he stayed around well beyond that. According to The Times, as late as October 2016 he was in contact with then-Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon about his supposed foreknowledge of a Wikileaks dump of documents. Wikileaks got the documents in question, consisting of emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, from the Russians — which of course poses a major problem for the Trump team.
Bannon and two other unnamed former senior Trump campaign officials have testified about Stone having cast himself as a valuable intermediary between the campaign and Wikileaks, The Times says.
Stone has unsurprisingly adamantly denied having any personal connections to the organization or its founder, Julian Assange, but he’s still being caught in lies and it’s not as though his denials are particularly credible. For instance, he insisted to The Washington Post that he’d never discussed Wikileaks with anyone at the Trump campaign at all — but now The Times has gotten the info on an email chain that proves otherwise.
After having previously spoken with an employee at Breitbart — which Bannon formerly led — and pushing for a connection with the then-campaign chairman, Bannon himself got in touch with Stone on October 4, asking for clarification about what Assange would be releasing, since Stone was apparently “in the know.”
Stone mostly reiterated Assange’s own comments, which included a revelation that a document dump would come every week until the election. At the time, an FBI investigation into possible Trump campaign ties to Russia was already well underway. Stone has claimed that he got his information from intermediaries including Randy Credico — who has himself denied involvement.
In their effort to uncover the truth of the story, Mueller’s team has summoned — besides the aforementioned set of former Trump campaign officials — an array of past Stone employees and associates. Some of the reasoning behind their time under the microscope is only just now becoming clear. Credico, his friend Bill Samuels, and former Stone employees Jason Sullivan and John Kakanis are all among those who have testified in some capacity.
There are other Stone-associated issues that have come under the special counsel’s consideration, including the Committee to Restore America’s Greatness, a Stone-led PAC whose donations and funds disbursements have been questioned.
He has previously said that he’s prepared to be indicted, but he’s suggested that it would be part of a political hit job and not indicative of actual wrongdoing.
In the meantime, the special counsel has already brought down four other former Trump associates, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, former associate Rick Gates, and former campaign manager Paul Manafort, all of whom have pleaded guilty to various crimes.
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