Roger Stone won’t testify as defense prepares to rest case

Roger Stone’s legal team intends to rest its case on Tuesday without bringing the longtime Trump associate to the stand in his trial on charges of lying to Congress and witness tampering.

The charges center on Stone’s Sept. 26, 2017, testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in which he said under oath that he had not spoken to anyone in the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks’ releases of stolen emails from the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

He also claimed not to have any records of communications related to his assertions that he had corresponded with WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange through an intermediary.

{mosads}The prosecution rested its case on Tuesday morning after four days of testimony from five witnesses, including former White House adviser Stephen Bannon and Trump campaign deputy Richard Gates.

Stone’s legal team intends to rest its case without calling any witnesses after playing an hourlong audio clip of his testimony in the closed-door deposition to the House Intelligence Committee.

Stone’s lawyers have argued that he in fact had no inside knowledge about WikiLeaks nor did he have an intermediary with the organization.

Testimony and evidence presented by prosecutors shows that the Trump campaign was under the belief that he had a connection to Assange and that he was providing them with nonpublic information about the organization’s plans regarding future releases.

Read the transcript of Stone’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee below:

Roger Stone Testimony to House Intelligence Committee by Meghashyam Mali on Scribd