House Sending Stone Transcript to Mueller

News  |  Dec 20, 2018

The House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously Thursday to give the official transcript of Roger Stone's testimony to Special Counsel Robert Mueller

Washington Post:

Last Friday, Mueller requested an official transcript of Stone’s 2017 testimony — the first time the special counsel had asked the committee to turn over material it has gathered during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mueller has had access to an unofficial copy of Stone’s testimony for weeks, but legal experts said he would need a certified copy provided by the committee if he wished to use the document to seek an indictment.

Stone, who has advised Donald Trump on and off for decades and was in contact with him during the 2016 campaign, has been a focus of the special counsel as Mueller investigates whether the Trump campaign had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’s release of Democratic emails allegedly hacked by Russian operatives.

Stone and WikiLeaks have repeatedly denied any coordination. On Thursday, Stone’s attorney Grant Smith reiterated that denial in a letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), writing, “Mr. Stone never had advance knowledge of the source or content of any releases by WikiLeaks or other organizations, and no person can prove, or truthfully claim, otherwise.”

(...)

Mueller could use the threat of a false-statement charge to seek cooperation from Stone, as Mueller has done with other Trump advisers, such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn and longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

CNN

Stone is demanding that the committee publicly release his interview transcript, according to [the] letter Stone's attorney sent Thursday to Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes. 

"Mr. Stone hereby demands the full and immediate release to the general public of the Transcript, such that the American citizenry and the world are able to evaluate for themselves Mr. Stone's veracity," Stone attorney Grant Smith wrote. "The Committee's rules allow for such a release, if the Committee is so inclined, by a simple majority vote of the Committee."

(...)

The House Intelligence Committee voted before the midterm elections to make public most of its interview transcripts from the Russia investigation. But those transcripts are still being scrubbed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and lawmakers say they don't expect them to be public until next year.

Read Grant Smith's letter to Devin Nunes (via Politico)

House Intelligence panel votes to send Roger Stone transcript to Mueller (CNN)

House Intelligence Committee votes to turn over transcript of Roger Stone testimony to special counsel (WaPo)