Phone calls between President Trump and his associate Roger Stone are drawing attention from special counsel Robert Mueller, as the focus of the Russia probe narrows in on WikiLeaks, The Washington Post reported Wednesday night.
While the Trump Organization turned over phone records showing some calls to Mr. Stone, the Trump campaign associate said Mr. Trump also called him on borrowed phones.
Mr. Stone told The Post that he didn’t discuss WikiLeaks with the president in any of those calls, and said, “unless Mueller has tape recordings of the phone calls, what would that prove?”
Mr. Trump also denied ever discussing WikiLeaks with Mr. Stone to both his lawyers and the Mueller team, unnamed sources told The Post.
The calls are coming under closer scrutiny as the Mueller team is focusing on what the Trump campaign knew about WikiLeaks’ plan to publish Democrats’ emails hacked by Russians during the crucial months of the 2016 presidential campaign.
According to a document drafted as part of a plea deal for Mr. Stone’s associate Jerome Corsi, publicly published by The Post, the Mueller team believes Mr. Corsi told Mr. Stone about the hack months before the emails were published.
It highlights emails sent in late July and August of 2016 about WikiLeaks, where Mr. Stone wanted his associate to get in contact with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.
Mr. Corsi, a former Infowars bureau chief, denies being in contact with WikiLeaks, and claims he simply put the plot together himself. He rejected a plea deal from the Mueller team this week, saying they wanted him to sign a lie about knowingly lying to investigators.
Mr. Trump continued to rail against the Mueller probe for the fourth day in a row on Thursday, calling the investigation an “illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt.”
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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