The special prosecutor investigating the Russian plot, Robert Mueller, seeks to clarify whether an ex-adviser to the election campaign of President Donald Trump intimidated a witness who allegedly had served as a liaison with WikiLeaks, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Sources who spoke with Mueller’s team told the Journal that prosecutors have been gathering information about the interactions of Republican strategist Roger Stone, Trump’s former adviser, with radio exponent Randy Credico.
Stone alleges that Credico, who was joined by a friendship in the past, was his link with Wikileaks, something that the latter has publicly denied.
The special prosecutor investigates if Stone and other figures of support to Trump knew in advance that the platform created by Julian Assange was going to publish before the electoral campaign, in 2016, stolen emails to the National Democratic Committee.
According to the newspaper, Mueller tries to verify if someone close to the current president participated in Russia’s efforts to hack and publish those materials.
Stone said during the campaign that he was in contact with Assange and predicted that he would post damaging emails for Clinton. After that happened, he said that his knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans came from Credico, who had interviewed him on his radio program.
In that sense, Stone told the newspaper his anger with Credico because he has “refused to tell the truth” about the role he allegedly exercised as a liaison with WikiLeaks.
Trump’s ex-adviser told the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives last fall that Credico was his liaison and, since then, both have criticized each other.
The filmmaker, David Lugo, was interviewed in that investigation, and he testified before a grand jury about a blog post very critical of Credico, and that Stone helped him write.
The businessman Bill Samuels has also appeared as a witness, who was asked about the reaction of former Credico to some supposedly threatening messages that Stone sent him.
In an email to the Journal, Stone denied attempting to intimidate Credico, while Mueller’s office declined to rule.
