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Read: Mueller wants the FBI to examine a ploy to discredit it.
Mueller, who is investigating whether the Trump campaign has plotted with Russia to win the 2016 elections, has interviewed Stone associates and senior campaigners in recent weeks, including campaign chairman Steve Bannon, and the former president of the campaign, Paul Manafort. He reportedly investigated whether Stone had co-ordinated the publication of hacked emails by a senior Clinton campaigner, John Podesta, to distract the victim. Go to Hollywood tape, which showed Trump making vulgar comments about women. The tape was released a few minutes before the e-mail dump. Stone has long denied having discussed WikiLeaks projects with Bannon or any other campaign manager. "There is no such communication, and if Bannon says, it would be concealed," Stone said. The Washington Post as recently as Tuesday.
But Stone's emails released Thursday belie this claim. On October 4, 2016, three days before the release of Podesta emails, Stone sent Bannon an email to predict "a load" of new WikiLeaks disclosures "every week in the future." According to Swalwell, Stone "had the opportunity" to share his comments with the committee. Conversations related to WikiLeaks with Bannon, but "he did not do it" (Stone told the To post On Thursday, he "was not aware of this email exchange until it was leaked," adding that he "did not disclose it in our search.")
It is not clear whether the Democrats on the panel plan to bring Stone back to another interrogation if they regain a majority in the House and assume the power to summon. But, like Swalwell, a Democratic assistant on the committee insisted on the importance of sending Stone's full transcript to Mueller to determine whether he had committed perjury. "We have repeatedly asked the majority to give the Special Advisor access to Roger Stone's transcript, among other things, both for the evidence she brings and to determine whether the witnesses committed perjury" said the assistant, who requested anonymity. "This is a particular concern for Roger Stone, especially after the release of these emails." Stone did not immediately return a request for comment.
Former federal prosecutors have told me that inconsistencies between Stone's testimony and what Mueller has learned could lead to hypothetical federal prosecution. If Mueller decided that Stone had lied to the jury, "I think he would only blame him for perjury", rather than refer the case to the committee, said Dan Goldman, former South District Federal Prosecutor from New York. who specializes in organized crime. "If, for whatever reason, he did not think he had a perjury case but thought Stone had misled the committee," he said.
Stone's contradictory statements have been decisive for both federal and congressional investigators, who want to know if Stone served as a bridge between the campaign, WikiLeaks and Russia. Although he told the committee that he "had never had any communication with Russians or people standing up for him in the context of the 2016 presidential election," Stone He later admitted to having met a Russian, Henry Greenberg, in May 2016, to get dirt for Hillary Clinton. With respect to Assange, Stone told the House Intelligence Committee that they spoke only through an intermediary, but direct messages on Twitter show that Stone was contacting WikiLeaks' Twitter account in October 2016. He It is widely acknowledged that Assange is the primary administrator of this account.
