Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Trump, reiterated he did not have advance knowledge of the WikiLeaks document dumps during the 2016 election, after former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg suggested special counsel Robert Mueller was building a case against Stone as part of his Russia probe.
In an interview with MSNBC Monday, Nunberg said he wasn’t sure why Mueller was targeting Stone, but suggested Mueller may be doing so because of Stone’s communications with WikiLeaks.
But Stone pushed back.
“I had no knowledge or involvement in Russian collusion or any other inappropriate act,” Stone said in a statement Tuesday. “Again I had no advance notice or knowledge of the source, content or exact timing of the Wikileaks disclosures regarding Hillary nor did I know about or predict the hacking and publication of John Podesta’s email.”
“Sam Nunberg marches to his own drummer,” he added. “He’s not speaking at my behest or direction. He is clearly not shy about expressing his own views.”
Roger Stone posts statement on Sam Nunberg, Russia probe on Facebook:
“I had no advance notice or knowledge of the source, content or exact timing of the wikileaks disclosures regarding Hillary nor did I know about or predict the hacking and publication of John Podesta’s email.” pic.twitter.com/7Q9kFL2Wvt
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) March 6, 2018
Stone said later on Tuesday in an interview with MSNBC that he has not received a subpoena from Mueller or a request for an interview.
When asked if he was concerned he had not been contacted by Mueller, Stone said he had “no concerns” and believes Mueller has already accessed his emails via a FISA warrant, based on a New York Times report from 2017.
Stone has come under fire after he appeared to anticipate WikiLeaks document releases, saying, at one point, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s “time in the barrel” would soon occur.
Stone has historically dismissed claims he had any prior intelligence that WikiLeaks would release Podesta’s emails. Rather, he said the statement was based on his own investigations of Podesta.
WikiLeaks is well known for publishing leaked secrets on its website. Among its controversial publications, the website has made public stolen emails from Democratic officials during the 2016 campaign as well as details on CIA hacking tools.
A U.S. intelligence community assessment determined with “high confidence” last January that WikiLeaks was used by Russian intelligence to release information as part of an effort to elect Trump. WikiLeaks denies this assertion.
