Robert Mueller dug around for a smoking gun to use against Donald Trump.
So far, every effort has failed.
But he may have found the one phone call that could bring down Trump for good.
Robert Mueller Focuses In On Roger Stone Phone Calls
During the 2016 campaign, Roger Stone advertised conference calls where Trump supporters could sign up and he would give them his view of the campaign.
Mueller’s team zeroed in on two August calls that they believe are evidence of collusion with Russia.
Jason Sullivan – a social media consultant who helped Stone arrange the calls – also recorded him.
He turned those recordings over to Mueller.
On an August 4, 2016 conference call, Stone predicted Julian Assange and WikiLeaks would decide the Presidential race.
Stone claimed Assange had a treasure trove of information on Hillary Clinton that he would release when the time was right.
The Wall Street Journal listened to the audio of the call and they report Stone saying:
In the background of this entire race going forward is the fact that Julian Assange…is going to continue to drop information on the American voters that is going to roil this race.
The Journal also reported on a second call:
In another conference call two weeks later, Mr. Stone claimed he was in touch with Mr. Assange, according to Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan said his recording of that call was among the materials he turned over to the special counsel’s office in May in response to a subpoena.
“Cooperation with Julian Assange, that’s the main thing,” Sullivan told the Wall Street Journal. “They’re pretty much fixed on him.”
“They keep asking me in 100 different ways, did you ever hear anything at any point?” Sullivan added. “We’ll see if they’re onto something.”
Roger Stone’s Other Public Statements About WikiLeaks
Days after the call, Stone spoke at a meeting of the Broward Republican Organization.
He claimed to have spoken with Assange and predicted WikiLeaks would unleash an October surprise on Hillary.
“I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation, but there’s no telling what the October surprise may be,” Stone declared.
Shortly thereafter, Stone made his famous tweet about the Podesta brothers.
Stone wrote:
Trust me it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary
Stone has defenses for all of these statements that shoots down any WikiLeaks collusion.
Stone said he learned about WikiLeaks having information on Clinton when an expert on the Clinton Foundation copied him on an email sent to former Fox News reporter James Rosen.
The email said WikiLeaks would begin releasing Clinton Foundation emails in September.
Stone also said he took Assange’s public comments that WikiLeaks would release information on Clinton and used that to make his predictions.
As for the Podesta tweet, Stone says he was clearly referring to the Podestas, plural.
John Podesta’s brother Tony also lobbied on behalf of the same political party in Ukraine as Paul Manafort.
Stone sent that tweet around the time a story appeared in the New York Times describing Manafort’s foreign lobbying work.
Stone claimed he was briefed on Tony Podesta’s business dealings by investigative journalist Jerome Corsi just weeks before he sent that tweet.
He says Podesta’s time in the barrel meant his business dealings would be under scrutiny.
Stone built a reputation as a dirty trickster who plays fast and loose in politics.
It may very well turn out that Stone took publically available information and used it to make it seem like he had an inside connection to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
Stone is a showman and he thought it would be a better sell if he claimed he was in touch with Assange than if he just said he took Assange’s public comments and put two and two together.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
