Stone says `no evidence' of Russian meddling
Roger Stone Jr., a longtime ally of President Trump, joined Boston Herald Radio’s “Adriana Cohen Show” yesterday to talk about the latest news from Washington. Here are excerpts:
Q: The House Intelligence chairman said there is no evidence of wiretapping claimed by President Trump. What do you think?
A: Well, more importantly the House Intelligence Committee said there is no evidence whatsoever that there were contacts between any Russian entity and people involved in the Trump campaign. That is I think a more startling announcement because The New York Times reported on Page 1 on Jan. 20 and again I think on the 30th that the intelligence services say that they are in possession of email records, records of financial transactions and telephone intercepts, meaning transcripts, that prove collusion between the Russian state and some supporters of Donald Trump. Now the Intelligence Committee chairman comes out and says that there is no such evidence. I believe there is no such evidence since I am one of three people named. I can assure you that there is no evidence in my email files or in any records because this simply did not happen. ... Denials of the intelligence agencies regarding whether Donald Trump was under surveillance are worthless, in my opinion. And if the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says he has found no evidence, well, then I would conclude that he hasn’t found any evidence — yet.
Q: You said you’d never had direct contact with Julian Assange, but through an intermediary. Could you recap what that process was?
A: A lot more gets read into this than should be. I have a friend who is a journalist. A working journalist in this country. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a friend of Assange. He’s somebody Assange likes and trusts. He told my friend that he had devastating political information on Hillary Clinton that he would begin unloading in October. That’s it. That’s basically what I predicted. Nothing more, nothing less. The idea that I was somehow involved in the orchestration, or the timing or the subject matter, all of that is false.
Q: Rachel Maddow, we were led to believe, had explosive tax return details from President Trump. What did you think?
A: This was a certified nothing burger. I mean, his tax returns were unremarkable, to say the least. Nothing in there untoward or surprising or shocking. I don’t know how MSNBC got them, but they hyped this well beyond the reality, a perfect example, of course, of fake news. MSNBC specializes in fake news.