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Leah Millis | Reuters
Roger Stone, longtime ally of US President Donald Trump, arrives for a press conference in Washington, DC, on January 31, 2019.
US Special Adviser Robert Mueller revealed for the first time Friday that his office had evidence of communications between Roger Stone, long-time advisor to President Donald Trump, and WikiLeaks about the spreading of hacked emails from the Democratic Party.
In a statement Friday, Mueller's office said that he had collected this evidence in a separate investigation with Russian intelligence agents accused of hacking emails during the campaign American presidential election of 2016 and having organized their release.
In an email criticizing Mueller's media coverage on Friday, Stone said the evidence was "harmless direct messages from Twitter" that have already been leaked to the House Intelligence Committee and "prove absolutely nothing".
Last month, Stone was accused of lying to Congress about his communications with other people about hacked emails. Mueller did not say at the time that he had evidence of communications with WikiLeaks. Stone, a Trump ally for 40 years, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Stone had already recognized brief exchanges with WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, but claims to have never heard of the publication of hacked emails. But Friday marked the first time that Mueller said he had obtained related evidence, although it is unclear whether the evidence is more substantial than what is publicly known.
"The government has obtained and executed dozens of search warrants for various accounts, used to facilitate the transfer of stolen documents for publication, as well as to discuss the timing and promotion of their release," wrote the paper. Mueller's team in a case filed in Washington DC US District Court
"Several of these search warrants were executed on accounts containing Stone's communications with Guccifer 2.0 and with Organization 1."
Organization 1 is a reference to WikiLeaks, while Guccifer 2.0 is a hacker, according to US intelligence agencies. It is a cover name used by Russian military intelligence.
WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 each published e-mails and other documents from the Democratic Party in 2016 as part of an operation that, according to Mueller, was part of a Kremlin-backed effort to make swing the election in favor of Republican candidate Trump.
WikiLeaks has previously denied any link with Russia or any cooperation with Russia.
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