Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Trump, exchanged messages directly with WikiLeaks, despite the fact WikiLeaks has disputed communicating with Stone and Stone has told lawmakers he had only corresponded with WikiLeaks through an “intermediary.”
Stone and WikiLeaks exchanged messages on Twitter on Oct. 13, 2016 and WikiLeaks left the door open for future communication with Stone after Trump was elected, according to messages obtained by The Atlantic.
Stone verified the messages were authentic, but challenged that they were taken out of context and were a “paste up.” The messages appear to indicate Stone viewed himself as a “friend” of WikiLeaks.
Stone also defended himself and noted he previously said he had not communicated directly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The report comes as Stone’s relationship with Assange has been called into question by various probes seeking to determine whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
Stone, a longtime political trickster, came under fire after he appeared to anticipate document dumps by WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, saying, at one point, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s “time in the barrel” would soon occur.
Stone has 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.
