Roger Stone, the longtime political operative and ally of President Trump, said Mr. Trump has never suggested to him that he could offer him a presidential pardon.
“Absolutely, positively not,” Mr. Stone said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Mr. Stone last week was indicted by a grand jury and faces charges of obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering tied to the release of hacked Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 presidential campaign.
According to the indictment, an unnamed “senior Trump campaign official” was directed to contact Mr. Stone about additional releases and what other damaging information “Organization 1” — widely believed to be Wikileaks — had on Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
He has maintained his innocence and has vowed to fight the charges.
Mr. Stone said on ABC that he never talked about Russia or special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election with Mr. Trump during the campaign or since that time.
“None whatsoever - categorically. Zero,” he said. “It’s true that we spoke on the phone, but those communications are political in nature, they’re benign, and there is certainly no conspiracy with Russia.”
Mr. Stone said he’d have to determine whether to cooperate with Mr. Mueller after his lawyers talk.
“I would certainly testify honestly,” he said, noting that he doesn’t know of wrongdoing by others on the campaign.
Mr. Stone, who had been a longtime political adviser to the president, officially left Mr. Trump’s campaign in August 2015 but has remained a steadfast supporter and backer.
“Roger Stone didn’t even work for me anywhere near the Election!” the president said on Twitter over the weekend.
Mr. Stone said that statement doesn’t really concern him and that the matter has nothing to do with the president.
“I never discussed these matters with the president, and everything I did regarding trying to get as much public attention to the Wikileaks disclosures among voters, among the media, is constitutionally-protected free speech,” he said. “That’s what I engaged in - it’s called politics, and they haven’t criminalized it, at least not yet.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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