Robert Mueller’s collusion investigation has been circling the drain.
But that may have all just changed.
He dug up a possible smoking gun email that he can use to convict Trump.
Democrats and the media are desperate to find any evidence – no matter how threadbare – to prove Trump colluded with the Russians.
They have long focused on former Trump advisor Roger Stone.
Now they are claiming there is proof Stone coordinated with the Russians because of one August 2016 email where he claims to have had dinner with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
“The special counsel investigating alleged links between Trump campaign associates and Russians is looking into longtime adviser Roger Stone’s 2016 claim that he had met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to a person familiar with the matter.
WikiLeaks, an antisecrecy website, later released a trove of material on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton that U.S. officials say was hacked by Kremlin operatives.
In an email dated Aug. 4, 2016, Mr. Stone wrote: “I dined with Julian Assange last night,” according to a copy of the message reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Stone is a longtime informal adviser to President Donald Trump who at that point had no official campaign role.
The note, to former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg, adds to a growing number of times Mr. Stone claimed during the campaign to be in contact with WikiLeaks. The next day, Mr. Stone publicly praised Mr. Assange via Twitter .”
Even though Stone was removed from the campaign in 2015, he still speaks regularly with Trump.
Mueller and the media would use any meeting between a Trump associate and WikiLeaks as evidence of “collusion” even though Stone was two steps removed from the campaign.
But the media’s glee was short lived.
Stone claimed the email was a joke and produced evidence that he was on a flight from Los Angeles during the time he was supposed to be dining with Assange.
The Journal also reports:
“In an interview, Mr. Stone said the email to Mr. Nunberg was a joke and that he never communicated with Mr. Assange in 2016.
“I never dined with Assange,” he said. The email “doesn’t have any significance because I probably didn’t go…there was no such meeting. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do. This was said in jest.”
Mr. Stone said he was flying out of Los Angeles the night before the email, putting him thousands of miles away from Ecuador’s embassy in London, where Mr. Assange has been holed up since 2012 under asylum. Mr. Stone provided the Journal with screenshots showing a booking for a person named “Roger” on a Delta Air Lines flight leaving Los Angeles for Miami on Aug. 3, 2016, at 9:30 p.m. The airline confirmed a flight matching Mr. Stone’s screenshot but declined to say whether Mr. Stone was on board, citing customer privacy rules.”
During the campaign, Stone made repeated claims to have been in contact with Assange.
The intelligence community and Democrats claim WikiLeaks is a front for Russian intelligence.
But no evidence to back up that claim – or the allegation that Stone communicated with WikiLeaks – exists.
In fact, the only communication between Stone and WikiLeaks that has been released was an exchange of direct messages on Twitter where WikiLeaks demands Stone stop falsely claiming a relationship with the anti-secrecy activist group.
The available evidence suggests Roger Stone did not dine with Julian Assange.
That would mean the collusion investigation is still a dead end.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this story.