Special counsel Robert Mueller has issued a pair of subpoenas to a social media and Twitter specialist who worked for a group set up by Roger Stone, an informal adviser to President Trump, according to a report.
Lawyers representing Jason Sullivan, the social media expert hired by Stone, received the two subpoenas last week, Knut Johnson, one of Sullivan’s attorneys, told Reuters. One subpoena compels Sullivan to appear before a grand jury on May 18 in D.C. and the other requests documents.
Stone reportedly hired Sullivan to work during the 2016 presidential campaign for a political action committee he started to back Trump.
Mueller, who took over the Russia probe roughly one year ago, has been looking into whether anyone tied to the Trump campaign may have worked with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange or Russian officials to time the release of emails hacked from Democratic officials, sources told Reuters.
The U.S. believes the Russian government hacked and leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic officials.
Reuters reported the subpoenas could signal that Mueller is examining whether Stone played a role in or had knowledge of the documents hacked by Russia and given to WikiLeaks.
Mueller is also investigating Stone’s claim in an email sent in 2016 that he met Assange, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
Stone has maintained there is no evidence showing members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and said he was joking in his 2016 email and never met with Assange.
Sullivan told the news service that he oversees the social media firm Cyphoon.com and “worked on the Trump campaign serving as chief strategist directly to Roger J. Stone Jr.”
A strategy document prepared for Stone by Sullivan and viewed by Reuters shows Sullivan talked about a “system” he crafted for creating “swarms” on Twitter as “an army of sophisticated, hyper-targeted direct tweet automation systems driven by outcomes-based strategies derived from REAL-TIME actionable insights.”
