An email between Roger Stone and an associate shows the former Trump confidant suggested making contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a report.
Stone emailed Jerome Corsi, a right-wing author and self-described conspiracy theorist, on July 31, 2016, proposing Ted Malloch, an academic turned informal Trump campaign adviser, meet Assange, ABC News reported late Sunday.
“Malloch should see Assange,” Stone wrote to Corsi.
Stone and Malloch have denied working with Assange to coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in order to boost President Trump’s race for the White House.
The email “proves I had no advance knowledge of contents of WikiLeaks’ DNC material, and like every politico and journalist in America, I wanted to know what the content matter was,” Stone told ABC News, referring to the Democratic National Committee.
“Corsi either never passed the suggestion on, or Malloch ignored it — but I think it is the latter,” Stone added. “The key is Malloch never contacts or sees Assange and never gets anything from him.”
“I was not involved in any of these matters,” Malloch told the news outlet. “I have never tried to reach Assange or visited that embassy.”
The July 31, 2016, email was sent days prior to WikiLeaks disseminating messages hacked from the Democratic National Committee, which were allegedly stolen by a group linked to Russian intelligence.
Stone is reportedly of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia investigation, given he appeared to foreshadow the WikiLeaks dump of John Podesta’s emails when Podesta was working as Clinton’s campaign chairman. The dump coincided with the October 2016 publication of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump was recorded bragging about sexual assault. The messages are believed to have been obtained by the same group affiliated with Russian intelligence.
A number of known Stone associates have been questioned by federal prosecutors tied to Mueller’s probe, including Corsi. Corsi testified last week before the grand jury impaneled in Washington to aide Mueller’s inquiry. Malloch was detained and questioned by the FBI in March before he was issued a subpoena by Mueller’s office. Malloch reportedly agreed to appear before the grand jury in April.
Stone, however, is yet to be contacted by Mueller’s team.
