Senate panel contacts Trump adviser in Russia investigation
Roger Stone likely to be investigated over communication with DNC hacker; committee also reaches out to Carter Page
A longtime adviser to US President Donald Trump said Saturday he has been asked by the Senate intelligence committee to retain any documents that could be related to its investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Roger Stone said he welcomes the opportunity to publicly testify before lawmakers. Stone said neither he nor Trump “have anything to fear in a fair, balanced inquiry.”
The Senate and House intelligence committees are investigating Russia’s hacking of Democratic groups and possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia. Stone has said he communicated with the hacker, Guccifer 2.0, who has taken credit for breaching the Democratic National Committee, but calls the contacts “innocuous.”
The Smoking Gun website and The Washington Times first reported that Stone and Guccifer 2.0 had exchanged direct messages on Twitter.
Stone corroborated the information and posted screenshots of the messages, in which he said he was “delighted” Guccifer was reinstated to the social media platform after being temporarily banned.
But he said in a post on his website that the messages were exchanged after the Democratic materials were leaked, and that he had “no contacts or communications” with Russian officials or intermediaries.
Stone raised eyebrows last year when he claimed on Twitter to have knowledge about information WikiLeaks planned to release about stolen emails related to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. “Wednesday @HillaryClinton is done,” he wrote in October, appending the hashtag “#WikiLeaks.”
Carter Page, who briefly served as a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, has also said he was contacted by the Senate panel about its investigation.
Before serving briefly as a Trump campaign adviser, Page was an obscure investment banker. Page worked out of Merrill Lynch’s Moscow office for three years and advised on transactions for Gazprom and RAO UES, two Russian entities, according to the website for his current energy investment firm.
He attracted attention for a speech he gave in July at the graduation ceremony for Moscow’s New Economic School. In his remarks, Page was sharply critical of the US and called Washington “hypocritical” for focusing on issues like corruption and democratization in its relations with Russia.
Page also offered contradictory answers about his contacts with Russian officials during his visit. Shortly after the visit, he spoke with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak in Washington.
He was never on Trump’s campaign payroll, and Trump’s team has long sought to distance itself from Page. But Page wrote recently that he was a frequent visitor to Trump Tower, which housed Trump’s campaign offices.