Roger Stone, President Trump’s former election campaign adviser, said he will refuse to answer questions from members of either of two Senate committees investigating the 2016 race.
Mr. Stone has declined requests to testify before both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination rather than accepting their invitations to appear, he and his lawyer, Grant Smith, told Reuters.
Neither of the committees subpoenaed Mr. Stone, 66, but both have asked him to produce documents and meet with its members, the news agency reported Wednesday.
Representatives for the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee — Sen. Richard Burr, North Carolina Republican, and Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat, respectively — declined to comment when reached by The Washington Times. Spokespeople for Senate Judiciary Committee leadership did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
A formal member of the Trump campaign through 2015, Mr. Stone has attracted scrutiny across Capitol Hill over his public comments preceding the release in 2016 of internal Democratic Party documents. He previously claimed to be in touch during the race with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and an internet persona known as Guccifer 2.0, and U.S. officials have subsequently implicated both of those contacts in the alleged Russia interference campaign waged against the election and Mr. Trump’s opponent, former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Russian state-sponsored hackers sourced Democratic material leaked online during the race by WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Investigators probing the circumstances surrounding their release are examining whether anyone in Mr. Trump’s orbit was involved.
Mr. Stone spoke privately in September 2016 with members of the House Intelligence Committee as part of that panel’s probe into alleged Russian election interference. That investigation ended earlier this year.
More recently, Mr. Stone’s lawyer sent a letter last week to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, citing the 2016 testimony as reason for snubbing her panel’s request for an interview.
“In the coming weeks, the House Intelligence Committee is intending to make public the transcripts of the testimony,” Mr. Smith wrote Dec. 3. “Presumably that will include Mr. Stone’s testimony and you will soon see that he directly and fully answered all of the questions posed to him.”
“If any member of the house intelligence committee has evidence of Russian collusion or wiki leaks collaboration or can prove that I received anything whatsoever from WikiLeaks including allegedly stolen or allegedly hacked emails I challenge them to produce it, otherwise stop playing ridiculous word games,” Mr. Stone wrote in an email to Reuters, the agency reported Wednesday.
Separate from probes in the House and the Senate, special counsel Robert Mueller is leading an investigation into alleged Russian election meddling on behalf of the Department of Justice that has resulted in federal prosecutors filing criminal charges against more than 30 people, including several Russian nationals members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
Multiple witnesses questioned as part of the special counsel’s probe told reporters afterward that investigators seemed interested in Mr. Stone, including fellow former Trump campaign advisers Sam Nunberg and Ted Malloch, among others.
Mr. Stone has not been contacted by Mr. Mueller’s office, his lawyer said earlier this week.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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