Political operative Roger Stone denied having any involvement in the publishing of leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee, calling it an “inside job.”
Stone, who was a prominent adviser to President Trump during the campaign and continues to be close with him, told reporters outside of a House Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday he doesn’t believe Russia hacked the Democrats and John Podesta.
“The science seems to indicate an inside job, so I don’t know whether the DNC was hacked, I don’t know at all that it was hacked by Russians and now on the basis of this report I tend to believe it was an inside job, meaning the data was downloaded to say a thumb drive and spirited out of the building,” he said.
Stone is under investigation for possibly being involved in the Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Stone called the hearing in which he testified a completely “political exercise.”
“It’s entirely a political exercise,” he said. “They make the charges against you in a public forum to maximize coverage for their U.S. Senate campaign or their re-election but then they only allow you to respond behind closed doors and they won’t even allow the release of the transcript. It really puts you at an extraordinarily unfair advantage.”
Stone also called Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., “Congresswoman Smear” because she told GOP political operative Michael Caputo he was perjuring himself.
“In the case of Michael Caputo, he attended the session, answered all questions truthfully and then Congresswoman Smear, I mean Speier, came back and said he perjured himself,” he said. “I don’t believe that’s true.”
