Democrats have long maintained that one particular Trump aide was a key suspect in colluding with Russia.
They claimed Roger Stone’s communications with WikiLeaks proved he was in on the Russian’s meddling in the 2016 election.
But a new batch of secret messages just ended the collusion theory once-and-for-all.
During the campaign, Stone maintained he had a backchannel to WikiLeaks.
He famously wrote in August of that year that it would soon be Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s “time in the barrel.”
This convinced many Democrats and journalists that he was in on the fact that the Russians had hacked Podesta’s emails and would distribute them through WikiLeaks.
Stone has always stated that is not true.
He declared he was talking about Podesta’s shady business dealings.
Now messages from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange back up Stone.
Leaked direct messages between Assange and another individual show he and Stone never communicated about the leaked emails.
The Daily Caller reports:
“A new leak of private Assange messages pours cold water on that idea.
In private Twitter messages exchanged in Aug. 2016, Assange referred to Stone as a “bullshitter” who falsely implied in public statements that he was communicating with WikiLeaks, The Intercept reported Wednesday.
“Stone is a bullshitter,” Assange wrote to an associate in a private group chat.
“Trying to a) imply that he knows anything b) that he contributed to our hard work,” he added.
Assange was responding to a news article that quoted Stone claiming he was in contact with Assange.
“I actually have communicated with Assange,” Stone told a group of Florida Republicans on Aug. 8.
Stone, a longtime Republican operative who has known Trump for 40 years, made other cryptic comments suggesting he had foreknowledge of WikiLeaks’ release of emails stolen from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta.”
The collusion story continues to collapse.
There is no evidence any Trump aide coordinated with Moscow during the election.
For months, many on the left pointed to Stone as a prime suspect.
They were sure he colluded with WikiLeaks – which they believe is a front group for Russian intelligence – to release emails damaging to the Clinton campaign.
But Assange’s own messages prove that to be false.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this story.
