Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team reportedly is interested in what Roger Stone and Randy Credico have discussed publicly, on-air about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.
CNN:
The interviews between Stone and comedian Randy Credico took place between August 2016 and April 2017 on Credico's radio show, which aired on local New York station WBAI. Stone has claimed that Credico served as his intermediary to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential election. Credico has denied the claim.
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CNN's KFile has obtained audio of the interviews, in which Stone and Credico repeatedly discuss WikiLeaks. In the interviews, you hear Credico ask Stone about the back channel and also cast doubt that the back channel exists.
While the interviews do not rule out the possibility Credico served as the back channel, the former radio host told CNN he believes the content of the interviews back up his denials.
"What you heard is what you heard because the radio doesn't lie," Credico told CNN.
CNN believes the special counsel's recent acquisition of the recordings bolsters the widespread assumption Mueller is building a case against Stone.
Stone claimed during the election that he had communicated with Assange through a "back channel," "intermediary" or "mutual acquaintance." Stone has issued conflicting and often inaccurate statements on his knowledge about the timing and content of WikiLeaks disclosures. He's also offered conflicting information in public comments about his source's relationship to Assange, repeatedly commenting in 2016 his source spoke with Assange. In his November 2017 Facebook post outing Credico, Stone said that Credico never confirmed WikiLeaks information with Assange himself and instead had different WikiLeaks sources.
Credico testified before the Mueller grand jury in September. He was subpoenaed to appear before the Senate's Russia investigation, but he has said he will assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and would only testify it the panel offered immunity.
In the interviews with Credico, Stone repeatedly refers to his connection to Assange, but his story changes from appearance to appearance, and he and Credico never indicate the latter could be the conduit.
"You say you had a back channel to WikiLeaks," Credico asks Stone.
"I've been completely honest about this. I described it various ways on the record in a speech to a large number of Trump supporters," Stone says. "I described it as a back channel. I think in another interview I may have said intermediary. In the third interview I said a mutual friend. They are all true. They're all consistent and what I learned from this person, and don't blame me if I had better sources than the mainstream media was very simply this, that Assange had a substantial of information on Hillary Clinton and he would drop it in October."
Earlier in the same show, before speaking with Stone, Credico again said he did not know who the Stone back channel was. He questioned if Stone had a back channel at all.
"I don't know who the back channel is," Credico said. "I don't think there is a back channel."