A key witness in Roger Stone's trial gave a first-hand account of President Donald Trump discussing WikiLeaks dumps with Roger Stone.
Rick Gates, who served as Trump's deputy campaign chairman and is a longtime associate of the imprisoned Paul Manafort, testified Tuesday that he heard the Republican nominee discuss WikiLeaks disclosures of stolen emails with Stone in a phone call during a car ride.
Stone, a longtime Trump associate and GOP operative, is standing trial on charges of obstructing justice, witness tampering and lying to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee as part of the probe of Russian interference in the election.
Gates, who has accepted a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors, told jurors that Trump promised after hanging up with Stone that more information would be coming from WikiLeaks.
In written responses to special counsel Robert Mueller, the president insisted that he did not recall discussing the release of those stolen emails with Stone.
"I do not recall being told during the campaign that Roger Stone or anyone associated with my campaign had discussions with any of the entities named in the question regarding the content or timing of release of hacked emails," Trump wrote. "I spoke by telephone with Roger Stone from time to time during the campaign. I have no recollection of the specifics of any conversations I had with Mr. Stone between June 1, 2016, and November 8, 2016."
"I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with him," he added, "nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with individuals associated with my campaign, although I was aware that WikiLeaks was the subject of media reporting and campaign-related discussion at the time."
WikiLeaks published numerous emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee, and U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have identified the hackers as Russian government operatives.
