Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators are looking into whether President Donald Trump’s longtime ally Roger Stone tried to intimidate a witness who contradicts Stone’s explanation of his contacts with WikiLeaks, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Prosecutors have repeatedly asked about emails, text messages and online posts involving Stone and his onetime friend, New York radio personality Randy Credico, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
Stone has asserted Credico was his backchannel to WikiLeaks; Credico denies that, the Journal noted.
According to the Journal, Mueller’s team is looking into whether Stone had direct contact with WikiLeaks — and knew ahead of time about its release of stolen Democratic emails in 2016, as he claimed during the campaign but now denies.
Stone says he’s angry at Credico because he’s “refused to tell the truth” about being Stone’s conduit to WikiLeaks, the Journal reported.
Filmmaker David Lugo also says he’s testified before Mueller’s grand jury about a blog post Stone helped draft that was critical of Credico. Another witness, businessman Bill Samuels, said he was questioned by Mueller’s team about Credico’s reaction to allegedly threatening messages sent by Stone, the Journal reported.
Prosecutors also are examining messages between Stone and Credico that involve the radio personality’s decision to assert his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before Congress, the Journal reported.
Stone denied there was any effort to intimidate Credico, the Journal reported. A lawyer for Stone said he hasn’t been contacted by Mueller’s office. Mueller’s office had no comment, the Journal reported.
“He’s getting his friends out there to slime me,” Credico said in a message to the Journal earlier this month, the news outlet reported. Credico appeared before the grand jury in September.
In emails sent to Credico and reviewed by the Journal, Stone threatened to “sue the f***” out of him, called him “a loser a liar and a rat” and told him to “prepare to die [expletive],” according to the Journal.
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