Roger Stone, a former adviser to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, said in a new interview that he no intent of ever testifying against the president as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference
“I do not work in the Trump White House. There are some things he has done as president that I do not agree with, and other things that he has done as president that I do agree with. But that said, I can’t think of any circumstance under which I would be willing to testify against him,” Mr. Stone told Variety in an interview published Friday.
A longtime Republican strategist and lobbyist with a decades-long personal relationship with the president, Mr. Stone has faced scrutiny over his connections to both the WikiLeaks website and the Guccifer 2.0 internet persona in light of their separate but similar roles in releasing internal Democratic Party documents prior to the 2016 election.
Mr. Stone claimed during the race that he was in touch with WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, and he successfully predicted his website’s release of documents damaging to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
More recently, Mr. Stone told The Washington Times in 2017 that he shared private Twitter messages with Guccifer 2.0, albeit while downplaying the nature of the exchange as “completely innocuous.”
Mr. Mueller was appointed last May to investigate the 2016 election on behalf of the Justice Department, and earlier this year his office brought charges against several alleged Russian military officer accused of hacking charges related to breaching Democratic victims of the WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 leaks.
Mr. Stone, 66, served as an adviser to Mr. Trump’s election campaign through 2015. He previously ran a lobbying firm with Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman who pleaded guilty Friday to charges filed as a result of the special counsel’s probe and agreed to cooperate with Mr. Mueller’s office.
Prosecutors would find “no evidence” Mr. Stone colluded in the release of stolen material, he told Variety.
“I think it is possible that I will be framed, but I have no idea,” he added. “It is very clear how the system works. You find a low-level person who has done something wrong, and then you squeeze them to bear false witness against a bigger fish.”
“I have no intention of just bending over. That I can assure you.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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