Roger Stone asserted no one from the Trump campaign directed him to make contact with WikiLeaks about Democrats’ emails obtained by the website during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Stone told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Friday that President Trump did not direct him to reach out, nor did anyone else on the campaign.
As to who in the campaign special counsel Robert Mueller believes Stone was in contact with about the emails as outlined in the indictment, “I have to speculate about that,” Stone said.
“Since it never happened, it appears to me that they have composed testimony from someone. Perhaps Rick Gates. Perhaps Steve Bannon. Perhaps someone is bearing false witness against me,” he said, claiming investigators will find no proof of their allegations in his emails or text messages.
Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of justice, making false statements, and witness tampering, as part of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Mueller’s indictment alleged Stone was in regular contact with WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign around the release of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. Mueller indicted Russian intelligence members last year for the hacking of those emails.
The longtime Trump confidant was arrested early Friday at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and is expected to appear in federal court in D.C. on Tuesday. Stone was released on $250,000 bond and ordered to surrender his passport.
After a court appearance in Florida, Stone called the charges politically motivated.
“There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself,” he told reporters. “I look forward to being fully and completely vindicated.”
