Despite offering to testify before the House and Senate intelligence committees and “fully cooperate” in their probes of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Roger Stone today put sharp limits on what he’s prepared to say: He won’t identify a mysterious intermediary who gave him advance notice about WikiLeaks document dumps and he won’t respond to any questions about his continuing communications with President Trump.
In a combative interview Thursday with Yahoo News, Stone — a longtime adviser to Trump — pulled back from an initial promise to answer every question when he testifies before the panels.
“[That’s] probably the one question I would decline to answer,” Stone said in the interview, when pressed on the identity of a source who gave him information from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last summer, tipping him off to the imminent release of materials damaging to Hillary Clinton that had been hacked by Russian intelligence. He added, “I’m just as much a journalist as you are, my friend. … I have no intention of burning a source.”
“When you go up there and testify under oath, you will refuse to answer questions about your intermediary?” Stone was asked.
“I would not give up a source any more than you would,” he responded. Stone later added another issue that he will consider off-limits to the committees. After acknowledging that he remains in touch with President Trump and has “heard from him recently,” Stone said that he won’t testify about what they talk about, but insisted their communications are not about the Russia probes. “I’m not going to disclose individual conversations with the president or communications with him,” he said.
In a combative interview Thursday with Yahoo News, Stone — a longtime adviser to Trump — pulled back from an initial promise to answer every question when he testifies before the panels.
“[That’s] probably the one question I would decline to answer,” Stone said in the interview, when pressed on the identity of a source who gave him information from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last summer, tipping him off to the imminent release of materials damaging to Hillary Clinton that had been hacked by Russian intelligence. He added, “I’m just as much a journalist as you are, my friend. … I have no intention of burning a source.”
“When you go up there and testify under oath, you will refuse to answer questions about your intermediary?” Stone was asked.
“I would not give up a source any more than you would,” he responded. Stone later added another issue that he will consider off-limits to the committees. After acknowledging that he remains in touch with President Trump and has “heard from him recently,” Stone said that he won’t testify about what they talk about, but insisted their communications are not about the Russia probes. “I’m not going to disclose individual conversations with the president or communications with him,” he said.