Well, that probably didn’t help.
President Trump’s former adviser Stephen Bannon testified Friday that Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, was the “access point” between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and WikiLeaks, which unveiled a slew of stolen emails damaging to Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton in the lead up to the election. Stone is facing charges of lying to the House Intelligence Committee, obstruction, and witness tampering over his connections to WikiLeaks.
Bannon also said he believed Stone “had a relationship” with the website’s founder, Julian Assange, and that he and Stone discussed WikiLeaks on several occasions even though Stone told the Intelligence Committee under a sworn statement that he never discussed Assange or WikiLeaks with any members of Trump’s campaign. In cross-examination from Stone’s lawyer, however, Bannon did testify that he was not aware of Trump’s campaign formally asking Stone to communicate with Assange about the emails.
Bannon, who said he valued Stone for his propensity for opposition research and “dirty tricks,” made it clear that he was only testifying because he was compelled by a subpoena, although he reportedly answered questions from the prosecution without argument. Read more at The Hill and Reuters.
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