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Carol D. Leonnig
A national investigative journalist focused on the White House and the government's responsibility
In recent weeks, a Washington grand jury has listened to over a dozen hours of testimony and FBI technicians have sifted gigabytes of e-mail messages as part of the quest for Special advice to solve an ardent mystery: Roger Stone, Trump's long-time advisor, does he have any other associate of the president – do you have prior knowledge of Wikileaks' plans to release pirated Democratic emails in 2016?
While they were apparently silent for a month, Robert S. Mueller III's investigators aggressively pursued behind the scenes to determine if Stone was communicating with the online group, including the disclosure of suspected e-mails. Having been hacked has disrupted the 2016 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the issue of special counsel.
Stone, who has boasted during the race of having been in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has since said his previous comments were exaggerated or misunderstood. He and WikiLeaks categorically denied having been in contact.
However, prosecutors are closely reviewing public comments and alleged private allegations on behalf of Stone in 2016, suggesting that he had a way to reach Assange, people said.
Last month, Randy Credico, a former friend of Stone, told the grand jury that Trump's Loyalist had entrusted during the 2016 campaign that he had a secret return channel to WikiLeaks, according to a person close to the file.
In a series of interviews with the Washington Post, Stone said his only connection with the band was through Credico, a liberal actor who had animated Assange on his New York radio show in 2016.
The special advocate's attorneys also focused on Stone's relationship with conservative journalist and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, seeking to determine whether he was acting as a link between Stone and Assange, according to another person familiar with them. interests. Corsi appeared before Mueller's grand jury last month, and FBI agents have recently sought to interview Corsi's associates, according to the same person.
In addition, investigators examined Stone's communications with Trump campaigners about WikiLeaks, according to people close to the survey.
Apparently, Pierre lied to Congress about his alleged contacts with WikiLeaks during the presidential race, according to the people.
The question of whether Trump's associates were in contact with WikiLeaks is at the heart of Mueller's investigation. According to the charges brought by the special advocate in July, Russian military intelligence officers used an online character called Guccifer 2.0 to distribute pirated Democrat emails via WikiLeaks. Russian agents also used the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account to send messages to Stone, who said the exchanges were benign.
[Charges against Russian intelligence officers intensify spotlight on Trump adviser Roger Stone]
The online organization said that she had no contact with Stone. "WikiLeaks & Assange has repeatedly confirmed that he has never contacted Stone," tweeted the organization in March 2017.
Stone told The Post that Credico "was my main source of information regarding allegedly hacked emails published by WikiLeaks," an allegation refuted by Credico. Stone added that one of his remarks in 2016 predicting that WikiLeaks was about to disclose information about Clinton had been informed by another journalist's advice that it had been forwarded by a partner.
Stone said Mueller's investigation was illegitimate and said the special advocate, who interviewed at least seven of his associates, is trying to force him to overthrow President Trump.
"The special council addresses all aspects of my social, family, professional, political and political life, seeking something – no matter what – that he can use to pressure me, to silence me and to compel me to testify against my friend Donald Trump, "Stone said in a recent video-taped fundraising appeal." I will not do it. "When I say I will not make the president fall, I mean that I will not be forced to fabricate lies to make him fall. "
A spokesman for the special council declined to comment.
Encouraging comments that he held after the group released thousands of hacked emails from key Democratic personalities, which began on the eve of the National Democratic Convention in July 2016, fueled questions about Stone's possible connection with WikiLeaks.
The following month, Stone began predicting that Wikileaks would hit again before the election. In a speech widely reported to a Republican group in South Florida in early August 2016, Stone's boasted: "I've actually communicated with Assange."
Then, on August 21, he tweeted, "Trust me, it will soon be Podesta's turn." Six weeks later, WikiLeaks started posting stolen e-mails to the campaign chairman's account. Hillary Clinton, John Podesta.
Stone now claims that his tweet refers to an opposition study done by Corsi about Podesta's business relationship with his brother, Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta.
[Trump associate Roger Stone reveals new contact with Russian national during 2016 campaign]
Two days after his tweet Podesta, Stone appeared on Credico's radio. Credico asked if an "October surprise" was coming and said Stone had "been in indirect contact with Julian Assange," according to a clip obtained by CNN.
"I do not want to control or influence Assange because I do not do it," Stone said on the show. "We have a mutual friend, someone we trust, so I get very good information."
Stone now says that he was referring to Credico. "I certainly could not get Randy out of his own radio show, but the person I'm referring to is, of course, him," he told The Post. "He's in the joke since the beginning."
As election day approached in 2016, Stone continued his predictions. On Sunday, October 2, he tweeted, "Wednesday @ HillaryClinton is over. #WikiLeaks. "When there was no publication on Wednesday, October 5, he tweeted:" Libs thinking that Assange will pull out is a wishful thinking. The payload arrives #Lockthemup. "
Two days after Stone's payload tweet, WikiLeaks released the first installment of Podesta emails – and threw new batches almost daily before the November vote.
When Stone was closely scrutinized for his comments about WikiLeaks after the elections, he stated that he had no prior knowledge of hacking and that he was only transmitting information that he had. He had received from Credico.
In a letter to the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017, Stone also said that Credico was his source on WikiLeaks, according to someone familiar with the communication.
Credico has repeatedly denied having passed information from WikiLeaks to Stone. He instead said that he had perhaps speculated on the group's tactics when he was with Stone. Credico told his allies that he thought Stone had used it as a "lure" to try to explain his claims that he would have a return channel to Assange.
Mueller's efforts to unravel the contradictory accounts of Stone and Credico are complicated by the fact that the two men are voluble showmen. They became friends in the early 2000s because of their common interest in liberalizing New York's drug legislation, but they divided bitterly under the watchful eye of the special council.
Stone said that he thought Credico had sources related to WikiLeaks and that Credico had offered to provide him with information from Assange's circle.
Two Stone associates, filmmaker David Lugo and attorney Tyler Nixon, also told The Post newspaper that Credico acknowledged in conversations last year that he was the source of material for Stone's statements and tweets. on WikiLeaks.
Nixon stated that he would be ready to testify before the grand jury about a dinner at which Credico feared that his Liberal friends would not be upset that he was a source for conservative Stone . Lugo provided The Post with text messages in which Credico said: "I knew Rodger [sic] was going to name me sooner or later and I told you that I am the so-called "return chain". "
A Credico lawyer refused to comment on Lugo and Nixon's claims.
For his part, Credico recalled that he remembered that Stone had stated in a conversation in September 2016 that he had had a mysterious contact with WikiLeaks. Credico said that at the time he was not sure to believe it.
"I remember saying," Roger, I thought you had a back channel, "said Credico." He said something to the effect of "Yes, but I can not get it back. use all the time. "" Credico passed on this story to the grand jury last month, according to someone close to his testimony.
At first, Stone denied Credico's claim that he suggested a way to get to Wikileaks, calling his old friend "perjury" and saying he would love to face Credico in court.
Later, Stone acknowledged to the Post that he had "obliquely" told Credico, in an email, that he had "a second source" of information about WikiLeaks in addition to the comedian from New York.
He told The Post that this person was not a direct intermediary to WikiLeaks. He said that he was referring to information that another associate had told him of a reporter who had written in a July 2016 email that he had heard that WikiLeaks would publish information about the Clinton Foundation.
[Roger Stone helped Donald Trump get elected president — now he’s helping himself]
Stone also said that he was receiving information about the Clinton in 2016 from Corsi. He told the House Intelligence Committee that his tweet Podesta was "based on a thorough analysis of early August [2016] Briefing on opposition research "de Corsi.
Corsi made a similar story in a March 2017 column in which he named himself Stone's source for the Podesta tweet and confirmed Stone's timeline, claiming that they had had detailed conversations about Podesta from 14 to 31 August 2016..
Mueller now examines their exchanges.
Corsi's lawyer, David Gray, said in an interview last month that Corsi had been summoned by the special council, which was interested in Corsi's communications with Stone in 2016 and 2017. Gray declined to comment last week.
Stone said he had met Corsi for the first time around 2015, when the author was writing about presidential politics for World Net Daily, a conspiracy theory-based website. Later, they both contributed to Infowars, where Stone still hosts a live program on the Internet.
In an interview, Stone suggested that the special council may be interested in Corsi's relationship with Trump.
Corsi was one of the main proponents of birtherism, the false conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. In 2011, he wrote the book "Where is the birth certificate ?: The case where Barack Obama is not eligible for the presidency".
Around the same time, Trump adopted the conspiracy theory, questioning Obama's citizenship and demanding that he return his birth certificate.
Stone said that during a conversation with Trump in 2011, he told me, "Who is this guy, Jerome Corsi? "Stone recalls.
Stone said that he had asked Trump why he had asked about Corsi.
"I talked to him," Stone recalls.
Stone said Corsi had also met Trump during the 2016 campaign. Trump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, declined to comment.
Stone added that Mueller was perhaps "more interested in these meetings than in everything that concerns me".
Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
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