Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s office is questioning former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on what he knows about Roger Stone, according sources in a new ABC News report.
Stone insists this line of inquiry will lead to nowhere in the ongoing Russia probe.
“I am highly confident Mr. Manafort is aware of no wrong doing on my part during the 2016 campaign, or at any other time, and therefore there is no wrongdoing to know about,” he said. “Narratives to the contrary by some in the media are false and defamatory.”
A Manafort spokesman declined comment to ABC. Mueller’s office declined to comment when reached by Law&Crime.
Manafort and Stone go back years and years. Manafort served as Stone’s campaign manager, and got him elected president of the Young Republicans in 1977. Four decades later, Manafort was found guilty of eight federal counts connected to his bank and tax fraud. He pleaded guilty to forego an upcoming second trial that would have focused on his lobbying work in Ukraine, and agreed to cooperate in Mueller’s probe.
U.S. intelligence agencies say the Kremlin directed hacking efforts to hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and to help Donald Trump. In recent months, prosecutors charged 12 Russian intelligence officers over the alleged plot, though Moscow officials denied the claim.
Stone sometimes pops up in this story. What did he know about WikiLeaks getting their hands on emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta? Stone, a former Trump political aide, has been scrutinized for his relationship with the Assange.
Stone previously sent out an email to supporters asking for legal aid in advance of a supposed frame-job by special counsel Mueller, who he called an agent of the “deep state.”
Stone actually used the word “frame” in a text and believes he will soon be indicted by the Special Counsel, the Guardian reported.
“Robert Mueller is coming for me,” Stone said. He claimed to be on a “hit list” and later said in a text that Mueller “may frame [him] for some bogus charge.”
Why? “In order to silence me or induce me to testify against the president.”
[Image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
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