Witness: Stone sought to 'debrief' Kushner on Clinton emails

Roger Stone, a longtime Republican provocateur and former confidant of President Donald Trump, waits in line at the federal court in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Roger Stone, a longtime Republican provocateur and former confidant of President Donald Trump, waits in line at the federal court in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON -- Testimony in the trial of Roger Stone wrapped up Tuesday with a top Donald Trump campaign official telling jurors that Stone tried to contact Jared Kushner to "debrief" him about hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Stone, a longtime Trump friend and ally, is charged with witness tampering and lying to Congress about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks about the damaging material during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Stone, who has denied wrongdoing, did not testify. His attorneys rested after playing a tape of his congressional testimony. Closing arguments are scheduled for today.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors used Stone's text messages and emails -- some of which appeared to contradict his congressional testimony -- to lay out their case that he lied to Congress and threatened a witness.

Rick Gates, who was Trump's deputy campaign chairman and became a key cooperator in the special counsel's Russia probe, told jurors that he received a text message from Stone on June 15, 2016, asking for Kushner's contact information. He said Stone wanted to "debrief" Kushner on developments about the hacked emails. Kushner was a senior campaign adviser at the time.

Gates did not say if Stone received Kushner's information. Kushner's attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment.

The prosecution rested its case after recalling a former FBI agent who had previously testified about a series of phone calls between Stone and then-candidate Trump -- including three calls on July 14, 2016 -- the day that a hack of the Democratic National Committee's servers was reported.

The president told former special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors in written responses to questions that he had no recollection of any particular conversations about the hacked emails.

Stone, whose history in Republican political circles dates back to the Richard Nixon era, was charged as part of Mueller's investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Stone has consistently criticized the case against him as politically motivated, and the judge overseeing his case had to issue a gag order in February after Stone posted a photo on Instagram of the judge in what appeared to be cross hairs of a gun scope.

Jurors also heard from Randy Credico, a New York radio talk-show host and comedian who scored interviewed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016, when Assange was avoiding prosecution by sheltering in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London.

During the 2016 campaign, Stone had mentioned in interviews and public appearances that he was in contact with Assange through a trusted intermediary and hinted at inside knowledge of WikiLeaks' plans. But he started pressing Credico to broker a contact, and Credico testified that he told Stone to work through his own intermediary.

Yet earlier testimony revealed that Stone, while appearing before the House Intelligence Committee, named Credico as his intermediary to Assange and pressured Credico not to contradict him.

After Credico was contacted by Congress, he reached out to Stone, who told him he should "stonewall it" and "plead the fifth," he testified.

Stone called Credico a "rat" and a "stoolie" in a threatening April 2018 email. Credico also testified that Stone used repeated references from the movie The Godfather Part II to intimidate him into either backing up Stone's testimony to Congress or refusing to testify.

Stone briefly served on Trump's campaign but was pushed out amid infighting with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Though sidelined, he continued to communicate with Trump and stayed plugged into his circle of advisers.

Prosecutors charged that he repeatedly lied to Congress "because the truth looked bad" for the president.

His lawyer, Bruce Rogow, didn't deny that Stone had told the House committee things that were untrue. Rogow described his client as a natural braggart whose claims of insider information didn't match reality.

But, he argued, Stone didn't have any "corrupt intent."

Information for this article was contributed by Zeke Miller of The Associated Press.

A Section on 11/13/2019

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