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It keeps getting worse for Roger Stone-no wonder his protege, Sam Nunberg is so worried about him.
During the Summer and early Fall of 2016, Stone on many occasions claimed to have spoken to Assange either himself or via an intermediary-the exact details tended change every time he told the story.
When he was pushed by Congress as to who was his intermediary after a lot of false starts he told them Randy Credico. Kind of figures he’d put it all on a liberal talk show host.
To be sure Credico to the extent is a ‘liberal’ he’s a liberal who started a Bernie supporters for Trump group.
Nunberg has been worried that Stone is going to be indicted for perjury. It’s not hard to understand why. Recently some DM messages with Wikileaks emerged-contradicting Stone’s testimony that he never spoke them directly.
So his narrative shifted again like it always does when he’s caught: ‘Ok I DMed them but it was no big deal. It was little more than a conversation about the weather.’
Now there’s the news that two Trump associates say Stone told them no later than April of 2016 that he’d spoken to Assange and that Wikileaks had emails damaging to Hillary Clinton.
“In the spring of 2016, longtime political operative Roger Stone had a phone conversation that would later seem prophetic, according to the person on the other end of the line.”
Stone, an informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, said he had learned from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that his organization had obtained emails that would torment senior Democrats such as John Podesta, then campaign chairman for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.”
This was around the same time that George Papadopoulos learned from the eccentric Russian professor Joseph Mifsud that the Russians had thousands of emails that were politically damaging to Hillary Clinton.
The question that begs then is are the emails Stone heard about from Assange the same ones Papadopoulos learned of from his Russian professor? Note that it was Papadopoulos’ boast about the emails to the Australia diplomat who-after seeing the email dump of the DNC in June reported this to the FBI-which then started the counterintelligence investigation of Trump-Russia.
“Stone’s possible connection to Assange has been under scrutiny since the 2016 campaign, when he made public claims that he was in contact with the London-based WikiLeaks founder. Since then, Stone has emphatically denied any communication with Assange or advance knowledge of the document dumps by WikiLeaks, which embarrassed Clinton allies and disrupted the 2016 campaign. WikiLeaks and Assange have also said they never communicated with Stone.”
Indeed, Stone’s denials have gotten more and more fraught and tangential.
“Stone’s possible connection to Assange has been under scrutiny since the 2016 campaign, when he made public claims that he was in contact with the London-based WikiLeaks founder. Since then, Stone has emphatically denied any communication with Assange or advance knowledge of the document dumps by WikiLeaks, which embarrassed Clinton allies and disrupted the 2016 campaign. WikiLeaks and Assange have also said they never communicated with Stone.”
In an interview Monday, he again denied that he had any advance notice about the hacked emails or any contact with Assange. He said he only recalled having one conversation with anyone in which he alluded to meeting the WikiLeaks founder — a comment he said he made as a joke to a long-winded Nunberg..
“I wish him no ill will, but Sam can manically and persistently call you,” Stone said, recalling that Nunberg had called him on a Friday to ask about his plans for the weekend. “I said, ‘I think I will go to London for the weekend and meet with Julian Assange.’ It was a joke, a throwaway line to get him off the phone. The idea that I would meet with Assange undetected is ridiculous on its face.’’’
Considering the amount of times Stone made this ‘joke’ it doesn’t sound so implausible.
On Aug. 8, 2016, in an appearance at the Southwest Broward Republican Organization, Stone answered a question about what he believed would be the campaign’s October surprise by saying: “I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but there’s no telling what the October surprise may be.”
Nunberg for his part didn’t take it as a joke at the time:
He said he did not recall the exact date when Stone told him that he had met with Assange, adding that he did not take the comment as a joke at the time. He said he was glad to hear Stone told The Post that the remark was made in jest.”
Lots of ‘jokes’ like Russia are you listening?
UPDATE: This report that Stone spoke to Assange directly and already knew about the Podesta emails remains a loose end as it contradicts the timeline we have since drawn from reporting and Stone’s indictment memo where Stone learned about the Podesta emails via Jerome Corsi as his intermediary-with Coris perhaps delegating the task to Ted Malloch.
But this Washington Post story based on two Stone friends-Nunberg and another unnamed friend-asserts he already knoew about the emails in April and that he spoke to Assange directly. And indeed-during the campaign Stone had bounced between saying he’d spoken to Assange himself and that he had through an intermediary. This is another question for Mueller.
After Cohen testified before Congress in March-testimony he’d already given Mueller-we now know that Stone had told Trump about the coming leak of the DNC emails before the convention on around July 18-19 of 2016. What was the source of Stone’s knowledge in this case?
End of UPDATE
Jonathan Chait asks a crucial question:
“Roger Stone Knew in Advance About the Stolen Emails. Did He Tell Trump?”
This must be what the legal phrase ‘asked and answered’ means as to ask it is to answer it. If Stone knew there’s no way he wouldn’t have told Herr Trump. Indeed, that’s a big part of why he’s in this mess-Stone never shuts up.
“The Post’s story does not speculate about whether Stone shared his knowledge with other Trump campaign officials, including Donald Trump himself. It would be stunning and bizarre if he did not. Stone held an official role in the Trump campaign, but departed his official role in August 2015 on what he later called “excellent terms.” Later in August, Stone was characteristically cagey about his contacts with the candidate. “Asked if he had spoken with Mr. Trump since they apparently went their separate ways, Mr. Stone said: ‘I would rather not say. I still consider him a friend, and think he still considers me a friend; let’s just leave it at that,’” reported the New York Times.
Soon after, Stone grew less hesitant to tout his access to Trump. “We’re on cordial terms. We talk. … We talk on the phone from time to time,” he told TPM in September. In a April 2016 Politico interview, he described more about his relationship with Trump, and repeatedly emphasized his close ties with Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. “By turning to Paul Manafort, who’s a former partner of mine, a very skilled guy … by going to Manafort, I think that Donald has made an excellent selection.” In May, he told Jeffrey Toobin he speaks with Trump “now and then.” In August, he told C-span, “I have no formal nor informal role but I do have access to all the right people.” In October, he boasted of “firing off long memos to the Donald once or twice a week.”
“During all these conversations, when Stone was jockeying for access and favor with the candidate, what are the odds he did not disclose the delicious secret he had obtained? It is impossible to believe that, after Donald Trump Jr. and other high-ranking campaign officials met in Trump Tower with a Russian agent who promised them dirt on Hillary Clinton, Donald Jr. did not excitedly tell his father about his impending coup. It is even more difficult to believe Stone did not share what he had learned months earlier.”
It’s pretty much impossible. That’s what will take Stone down-he never shuts up. Last night the film producer for Stone’s documentary revealed to Ari Melba that Stone told him that he wanted to speak to Assange.
“Roger Stone was attempting to meet with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the summer of 2016, a producer for “Get Me Roger Stone” said on Tuesday.”
“Morgan Pehme, a producer for the documentary, said on MSNBC that during an interview with Stone for the documentary, the then-informal Trump adviser “was trying to meet with Julian Assange.”
“We don’t know if it was successful,” Pehme said.
Stone is either guilty as sin or has done everything in his own power to make himself look guilty as sin.
UPDATE: This report that Stone spoke to Assange directly and already knew about the Podesta emails remains a loose end as it contradicts the timeline we have since drawn from reporting and Stone’s indictment memo where Stone learned about the Podesta emails via Jerome Corsi as his intermediary-with Coris perhaps delegating the task to Ted Malloch.
But this Washington Post story based on two Stone friends-Nunberg and another unnamed friend-asserts he already knew about the emails in April and that he spoke to Assange directly. And indeed-during the campaign Stone had bounced between saying he’d spoken to Assange himself and that he had through an intermediary. This is another question for Mueller.
After Cohen testified before Congress in March-testimony he’d already given Mueller-we now know that Stone had told Trump about the coming leak of the DNC emails before the convention on around July 18-19 of 2016. What was the source of Stone’s knowledge in this case?
End of UPDATE
Regarding the question of wether he spoke to Trump about what he heard from Assange-wether directly or via intermediary-it’s been logically obvious for some time-the emails make it clear that the Trump campaign itself-Paul Manafort who was then campaign manager, a position Stone takes credit in securing for him?-directed Stone to find out what else Assange had on July 22 and after the first batch of Podesta emails were released-just one hour and 40 minutes post Access Hollywood-Steve Bannon-the then campaign director-emailed him ‘well done.’
There was also reporting and info from Mueller that made it clear Stone and Trump spoke regularly and it’s not at all likely that Stone would have hid this from Trump-beyond the fact that it’s clear Stone set out to find what more Assange had at the direction of the campaign.
But now that we have Cohen’s testimony of witnessing Stone tell Trump about the coming dump of the DNC emails it’s not even a live question any more-truly asked and answered