Roger Stone, President Trump’s former campaign adviser, won’t testify this month as previously planned before a congressional panel probing Russia’s involvement in last year’s race, according to his attorney.
The House Intelligence Committee has postponed a July 24 meeting in which Mr. Stone was expected to give a closed-door testimony to congressional lawmakers investigating possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, attorney Grant Smith told Bloomberg on Friday.
Lawmakers told Mr. Stone late Thursday they weren’t ready and were delaying his testimony until after Congress returns from August recess, Mr. Smith told Bloomberg.
“Mr. Stone is disappointed that this is being delayed and as a consequence he is being prevented from responding to all the false statements and innuendo that have been directed at him,” he said in a statement to The Washington Times. “The more time he is kept from entering the truth on the official record, the more time people can perpetrate lies.”
A spokesperson for Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the committee’s ranking Democrat, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, the top Republican leading the panel’s probe, declined to confirm the postponement when pressed by reporters Friday, Bloomberg reported.
Mr. Stone, a longtime Republican operative, served as an adviser to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign until August 2015. He has admitted to privately engaging the following summer with a Twitter user implicated in Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other targets associated with Mr. Trump’s former White House rival, Hillary Clinton.
The U.S. intelligence community believes the Russian government used state-sponsored hackers and media outlets to target Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, and utilized an internet persona, “Guccifer 2.0,” to distribute stolen material during last year’s race. The Washington Times reported in March that Mr. Stone exchanged private messages with the Guccifer 2.0 account, including one where he asked the alleged Russian operative to retweet a article he authored about last year’s election.
“[P]lease tell me if i can help u anyhow. it would be a great pleasure to me,” Guccifer 2.0 responded.
Mr. Stone did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has previously denied conspiring with Russia in any way with respect to Mr. Trump’s election.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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