Roger Stone: I never discussed WikiLeaks or Clinton emails with Trump

Roger Stone on Tuesday pushed back at the notion that it would be treasonous if President Trump’s campaign coordinated with WikiLeaks to release emails from rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

“I’ve been accused of being a dirty trickster. There’s one trick that’s not in my bag: That’s treason,” Stone, a longtime GOP operative and informal adviser to Trump, said on MSNBC’s “Meet The Press Daily.”

“For it to be a treasonous act, [Julian] Assange would have to provably be a Russian asset, and WikiLeaks would have to be a Russian front. And I don’t think that’s the case,” he continued, referring to the founder of the anti-secrecy group.

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Asked by host Chuck Todd if he thinks it’s possible WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign coordinated the release of the Clinton campaign’s emails, Stone said he has “no knowledge that happened.”

“It certainly did not happen in my case. That is not something I was involved in,” Stone said.

Stone has faced questions about his communications with WikiLeaks from the House Intelligence Committee, but has maintained he spoke to its founder, Assange, through an intermediary.

On Tuesday, Stone said he never discussed WikiLeaks or the hacked emails from Clinton’s campaign with Trump.

On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump had declared “I love WikiLeaks” after the organization published the emails. 

“I can honestly say that candidate Trump, Donald Trump, President Trump and I have never discussed the WikiLeaks disclosures before, during or after the election. Not a single one,” Stone asserted. 

He also said that he has not spoken with the president in several months.

Stone’s appearance came one day after former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg gave a series of bizarre interviews on cable saying he would not comply with a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller, whose team is leading the probe into Trump campaign associates’ ties to Russia.

In explaining his decision to defy the subpoena, Nunberg often invoked Stone’s name, saying it would take “80 hours” to go through all the emails he exchanged with Stone and Steve Bannon, the Trump campaign’s executive. He also described Stone as a mentor.

Stone said Tuesday that he did not advise Nunberg and was pleased that he has ultimately decided to comply with the subpoena from Mueller’s team.

“I didn’t ask Sam Nunberg to protect me. I don’t think I require any protection,” Stone said.

He added that he has not received a subpoena to turn over documents or appear for an interview with Mueller.