Roger Stone told one of Donald Trump’s top staffers in April 2016 that WikiLeaks had plans to dump information in the heat of the presidential race, moving up the time frame the Trump campaign was aware it could get help in its bid to beat Hillary Clinton.
That new data point emerged during testimony from Rick Gates, the former Trump deputy campaign chairman who testified during Stone’s trial on Tuesday morning.
Gates said he first heard from Stone, a longtime Trump confidant, in phone calls about the potential Julian Assange-orchestrated assistance two months before Trump secured the GOP presidential nomination.
“Mr. Stone indicated that WikiLeaks would be submitting or dropping information but no information on dates or anything of that nature,” Gates said in district court, where Stone’s trial on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing lawmakers’ 2016 Russia probe entered its second week.
Federal prosecutors expect to rest their case against Stone later Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Kravis said while opening the day’s proceedings.
But before the government hands the reins of the trial to Stone’s defense, it asked Gates detailed questions about his interactions throughout the spring and summer of 2016 with the longtime GOP operative known for his decadeslong relationship with Trump and a history dating to Watergate of orchestrating “dirty tricks.”
Stone requested contact information from Gates in June for Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior member of the 2016 campaign.
The Trump campaign was also elated in June as it learned more information from Stone about Assange’s plans to publish damaging information about Clinton and her campaign.
“It was in a way a gift,” Gates said. He later added: “We were kind of in disbelief. We believed that if information were to come out, there were a number of us that felt that it would give our campaign a leg up.”
Gates’ testimony in the Stone trial is part of a deal he worked out with the government after pleading guilty in February 2018 on charges of conspiracy against the U.S. and making false statements to the FBI. Attorneys for the Department of Justice and Gates told a federal judge on Monday that they are ready for Gates to be sentenced in his case.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/12/roger-stone-trial-wikileaks-069831
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The Article Was Written/Published By: mchoi@politico.com (Matthew Choi)
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