Roger Stone, the former adviser to Donald Trump cited by Hillary Clinton’s campaign as a possible instigator of alleged Russian hacks, is denying any involvement in the breach that exposed thousands of Clinton campaign emails to the public this week.
“This is the new McCarthyism,” Stone told the Washington Examiner of the Clinton campaign’s allegations.
John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chair and the target of the unidentified hackers who gave 50,000 of his emails to WikiLeaks, has pointed to an alleged meeting between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and a cryptic tweet Stone sent earlier this year as proof that Stone was involved in the leak. Other Clinton campaign aides have implicated Stone in the hacks.
“Podesta’s claims would be laughable if they weren’t so outrageous,” Stone said. “Mr. Podesta was an active money-launderer for Russian interests.”
Podesta and his brother founded a lobbying shop, the Podesta Group, that has represented a variety of foreign clients, including the same former Ukrainian president whose ties to Paul Manafort forced Manafort to resign as Trump’s campaign manager.
“I didn’t need Julian Assange to tell me this,” Stone said. “Mr. Podesta’s charges are categorically false. He offers no proof because he has none.”
“Podesta makes Paul Manafort look like Mother Theresa,” he added.
Clinton’s campaign has dismissed findings from the roughly 7,200 emails released so far by arguing the hack was a Russian-sponsored attempt to sway the U.S. presidential race.
Emails have exposed controversial excerpts from Clinton’s paid speeches, her staff’s efforts to distract voters from the email scandal and Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile’s underhanded efforts to boost Clinton during the primary.
