Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Trump, said Thursday that he hasn’t had any discussions with anyone in the Trump administration about a pardon so far.
“I have not,” Stone said when asked in a Washington press availability about whether he has spoken with Trump about a pardon. He also said he hasn’t talked to anyone in the White House about that possibility.
Stone spoke just days after he pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him by special counsel Robert Mueller, who says Stone lied to Congress and tried to influence a witness in Mueller’s investigation into Russia.
Stone said the question of whether he will cooperate with Mueller will “ultimately” be answered by his defense counsel.
“I will tell the truth about any matter that I have knowledge of,” he said. “I don’t possess any knowledge of any wrongdoing by the president of the United States, including Russian collusion.”
Thursday’s press conference could be the last time Stone speaks publicly about the case, as there is speculation the judge could place a gag order on him Friday like she did in the Manafort case.
Mueller took over the federal government’s investigation into Russian election interference in May 2017, and he is also investigating possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Last week, Stone became the 34th person charged by Mueller.
On Tuesday, Stone entered his not guilty plea on seven criminal counts. Stone, 66, will make his first appearance before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Friday afternoon. Jackson will preside his case, and she is also presiding over Mueller’s case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Earlier Thursday, Mueller’s team said federal prosecutors have evidence in the case against Stone that is “both voluminous and complex.”
“It is composed of multiple hard drives containing several terabytes of information,” prosecutors wrote in their court filing. That includes banking financial records and communications taken from iCloud and email accounts, as well as cellphones, computers, and hard drives.”
