The Wall Street Journal reveals Roger Stone tried to get damaging information on Hillary Clinton from WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. Stone testified before the House Intelligence Committee that he only wanted to know if Julian Assange had incriminating information on Clinton but never actually solicited anything. The Journal has reviewed emails that show otherwise.
In a Sept. 18, 2016, message, Mr. Stone urged an acquaintance who knew Mr. Assange to ask the WikiLeaks founder for emails related to Mrs. Clinton’s alleged role in disrupting a purported Libyan peace deal in 2011 when she was secretary of state, referring to her by her initials.
“Please ask Assange for any State or HRC e-mail from August 10 to August 30--particularly on August 20, 2011,” Mr. Stone wrote to Randy Credico, a New York radio personality who had interviewed Mr. Assange several weeks earlier. Mr. Stone, a longtime confidant of Donald Trump, had no formal role in his campaign at the time.
Mr. Credico initially responded to Mr. Stone that what he was requesting would be on WikiLeaks’ website if it existed, according to an email reviewed by the Journal. Mr. Stone, the emails show, replied: “Why do we assume WikiLeaks has released everything they have ???”
In another email, Mr. Credico then asked Mr. Stone to give him a “little bit of time,” saying he thought Mr. Assange might appear on his radio show the next day. A few hours later, Mr. Credico wrote: “That batch probably coming out in the next drop...I can’t ask them favors every other day .I asked one of his lawyers...they have major legal headaches riggt now..relax.”
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Mr. Stone, in a text message to the Journal, said that Mr. Credico had “provided nothing” to him and that WikiLeaks never handed anything over. Both men deny ever having special access to WikiLeaks’ material.
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Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the emails hadn’t been provided to congressional investigators. “If there is such a document, then it would mean that his testimony was either deliberately incomplete or deliberately false,” ...
A lawyer for Mr. Stone, Grant Smith, said the emails hadn’t been turned over to House investigators because they were “not encompassed within the scope of the committee’s request.” Mr. Stone said the emails were preserved at the request of the Senate, which is also conducting a Russian interference probe. Mr. Smith said they hadn’t yet been given to investigators there.
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The emails appear to be consistent with Mr. Stone’s description in his sworn testimony of Mr. Credico as a “go-between” and an “intermediary” to WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, according to a portion of his interview that was made public.
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Mr. Credico said his relationship with Mr. Assange and his team didn’t begin until late August 2016, when the WikiLeaks founder agreed to do his radio show. By that time, Mr. Stone had already claimed to be in touch with Mr. Assange and appeared to predict the release of information damaging to Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Stone now says he assumed Mr. Credico was in touch with Mr. Assange during that time.
After earlier asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the House probe, Mr. Credico now says he is willing to talk with investigators. He said he met on Wednesday with the committee’s Democratic staff members for what he called a limited conversation about WikiLeaks, the 2016 campaign and Mr. Stone.
Full story: Roger Stone Sought Information on Clinton from Assange, Emails Show (WSJ) *Note: WSJ articles are behind a paywall