The FBI has released a cache of messages exchanged between Roger Stone, the Republican political fixer, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential campaign. The exchanges cast new light on Stone’s role as an unofficial channel between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. In the missives, Stone and Assange discussed the origin of damaging information on Hillary Clinton that U.S. officials believe was hacked by Russians and handed to WikiLeaks. In a direct message on Twitter cited by the FBI, Stone told Assange “as a journalist it doesn’t matter where you get information only that it is accurate and authentic,” adding, “If the US government moves on you I will bring down the entire house of cards.” After Stone congratulated Assange on “the trumped-up sexual assault charges” being “dropped,” an apparent reference to a sexual-assault investigation by Swedish authorities, Assange replied: “Between CIA and DoJ they’re doing quite a lot. On the DoJ side that’s coming most strongly from those obsessed with taking down Trump trying to squeeze us into a deal.” Stone wrote back that he was doing everything possible to “address the issues at the highest level of Government.” Stone said in a statement to the Associated Press that “there was no illegal activity and certainly no Russian collusion by me during the 2016 election.” Stone was found guilty in 2019 of obstructing a congressional probe into Russian election interference and witness tampering and sentenced to more than three years in prison.
