Special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of Russian military officers in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) appears to make reference to former informal Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone.
The longtime GOP strategist acknowledged to CNN that messages included in the latest indictments match ones that he previously released relating to the hacker Guccifer 2.0, but he denied that he is the person referred to in the indictment “because I wasn’t in regular contact with members of the Trump campaign.”
Stone told The Hill in a text that his “24 word exchange with someone on Twitter claiming to be Guccifer 2.0 is benign based on its content context and timing,” adding that he said the same during his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last year.
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“This exchange is entirely public and provides no evidence of collaboration or collusion with Guccifer 2.0 or anyone else in the alleged hacking of the DNC emails, as well as taking place many weeks after the events described in today’s indictment,” he continued.
The indictment released Friday refers to “a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump” who was contacted by the Russian officers under the guise of the hacker Guccifer 2.0.
The document cites messages where Guccifer 2.0 wrote to the individual “please tell me if i can help u anyhow … it would be a great pleasure to me” and “what do u think of the info on the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign.”
The individual replied to the last message, “Pretty standard.”
Those messages match up with Twitter direct messages exchanged between Stone and Guccifer 2.0. Stone posted screenshots of the messages last year.
Stone has emerged as a person of interest in Mueller’s probe into Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, and some of Stone’s associates have recently been subpoenaed in the probe.
The former Trump campaign adviser said during an interview last month with Hill.TV’s “Rising” program that it’s possible that he’ll be indicted in Mueller’s probe.
Mueller on Friday indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers in the hacking of the DNC in 2016.
Stone noted to CNN on Friday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had said “that they knew of no crime by US citizens” when he announced the indictments.
“They included my exchange with Guccifer, which is now public, in the indictment. And it’s benign. So I don’t know that it refers to me,” Stone told the network.
“There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity or knew they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers,” Rosenstein said Friday while announcing the charges.
— Niall Stanage contributed to this report.