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Good morning Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member,
Committee members of the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence, and staff. My name is Roger J.
Stone, Jr., and with me today are my counsel, Grant Smith
and Robert Buschel.
I am most interested in correcting a number of
falsehoods, misstatements, and misimpressions regarding
allegations of collusion between Donald Trump, Trump
associates, The Trump Campaign and the Russian state. I
view this as a political proceeding because a number of
members of this Committee have made irresponsible,
indisputably, and provably false statements in order to
create the impression of collusion with the Russian state
Stone Open ng Statement F na
1 without any evidence that would hold up in a US court of
law or the court of public opinion.
I am no stranger to the slash and burn aspect of
American politics today. I recognize that because of my
long reputation and experience as a partisan warrior, I am a
suitable scapegoat for those who would seek to persuade
the public that there were wicked, international
transgressions in the 2016 presidential election. I have a
long history in this business: I strategize, I proselytize, I
consult, I electioneer, I write, I advocate, and I
prognosticate. I’m a New York Times bestselling author, I
have a syndicated radio show and a weekly column, and I
report for Infowars.com at 5 o’clock eastern every day.
Stone Open ng Statement F na
2 While some may label me a dirty trickster, the members of
this Committee could not point to any tactic that is outside
the accepted norms of what political strategists and
consultants do today. I do not engage in any illegal activities
on behalf of my clients or the causes in which I support.
There is one “trick” that is not in my bag and that is treason.
As someone whose political activism was born from the
anti-communism of Senator Barry Goldwater and President
Ronald Reagan; and whose freedom seeking family
members were mowed-down by Russian tanks on the
streets of Budapest in 1956, I deeply resent any allegation
that I would collude with the oppressive Russian state to
affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Stone Open ng Statement F na
3
My colleague, Michael Caputo, voluntarily sat in this
seat a couple of months ago, gave what I believe were
candid and truthful answers to those who cared to sit in on
the interview; and yet, when he was done, he was accused
of perjury by a member who did not even have the
pretention to show up for his interview. He was eviscerated
by some Committee members and consequently, the press.
The most unfair aspect of this turn of events, and behavior
by some Committee members, is that this Committee
refuses, to this day, to release the transcripts of his
testimony for the world to read and judge for themselves.
Multiple members of this Committee have made false
allegations against me in public session in order to ensure
Stone Open ng Statement F na
4 that these bogus charges received maximum media
coverage. Now however, you deny me the opportunity to
respond to these charges in the same open forum. This is
cowardice. Fortunately, we will have the opportunity today
to take the exact words of some members of this
Committee and examine them in order to uncover the lies.
Members of this Committee as well as some members
of the Senate Intelligence Committee aren’t alone in their
irresponsibility. On January 20, 2017, the New York Times
reported that the intelligence services were in possession of
emails, records of financial transactions and transcripts of
telephone intercepts, which proved that Roger Stone, Paul
Manafort, and Carter Page colluded with the Russians for
Stone Open ng Statement F na
5 the benefit of Donald Trump. So, where are these records?
Can this Committee or our intelligence agencies produce
them? I didn’t think so.
Nor, is this irresponsibility entirely partisan. Sen. John
McCain told CNN that I “…should be compelled to appear
before the Senate to explain my ties to Yanukovych and the
Russians.” This is very simple, Senator the answer is: “None”
and “None.” In fact, I worked against Yanukovych’s party in
the 2006 parliamentary elections in Ukraine, and have no
ties to any Russians.
Given this Committee’s consistent refusal to allow me
to testify in a public session, in the interest of compromise, I
have repeatedly requested that the transcript of my
Stone Open ng Statement F na
6 testimony here today, be released immediately upon
conclusion of today’s session. Even this constructive
suggestion has been rejected. What is it you fear? Why do
you oppose transparency? What is it you don’t want the
public to know?
I can assure each of you, I will not let myself be a
punching bag for people with ill intentions or political
motives. Understand, I will expose the truth in every forum
and on every platform available to me.
As a 40- year friend and advisor of Donald Trump, I had
continually urged him to run for the presidency, beginning
in 1988. When he decided in 2015 to become a serious
candidate against a weak slate of opponents, I became one
Stone Open ng Statement F na
7 of the Trump campaign’s first consultants, reprising a role I
played in 2012 when Donald Trump briefly considered a
candidacy in that election. I performed consulting work for
the campaign for five months and the consulting
relationship ended in August 2015. I, however, didn’t go
quietly into the night, I continued to work, write, and
advocate on behalf of his candidacy because to this day, I
believe he has the potential to be a truly transformative
president and to make our nation great again.
These hearings are largely based on a yet unproven
allegation that the Russian state is responsible for the
hacking of the DNC and John Podesta and the transfer of
that information to WikiLeaks. No member of this
Stone Open ng Statement F na
8 Committee or intelligence agency can prove this assertion.
Because the DNC steadfastly refused to allow the FBI to
examine their computer servers, this entire claim is based
on a self-serving report by CloudStrike, a forensic IT
company retained by, directed, and paid for by the DNC.
The Nation magazine recently reported on a study
issued by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
(VIPS), which is comprised of numerous former high-level
US intelligence officials. Based upon the VIPS study, The
Nation concluded that, “There was no hack of the
Democratic National Committee’s system on July 5, 2016…
not by the Russians and not by anyone else. Hard science
now demonstrates it was a leak- a download executed
Stone Open ng Statement F na
9 locally with a memory key or a similarly portable data-
storage device. In short, they reported it was an inside job
by someone with access to the DNC’s system. This casts
serious doubt on the alleged initial “hack,” that led to the
very consequential publication of a large store of
documents on WikiLeaks last summer.” Additionally, these
unproven allegations have led to a frivolous lawsuit filed by
former Obama administration lawyers against me and the
Trump campaign. In my motion to dismiss, I submitted a
sworn declaration of Dr. Virgil Griffith, a cognitive computer
graduate from the California Institute of Technology, who
questioned the unproven assumptions that Russian hackers
are responsible for theft of DNC emails and other data.
Stone Open ng Statement F na
10 I recognize that those who believe that there was
collusion between the Trump camp and the Russian state,
now say Stone, “MUST HAVE” been involved, but that is not
based on one shred of evidence. This is nothing more than
conjecture, supposition, projection, allegation, and
coincidence, none of it proven by evidence or fact. I
understand the Committee’s interest in me, I use all clauses
of the 1 st Amendment to achieve my goals, I am out there, I
am provocative and partisan, but let’s be clear, I have no
involvement in the alleged activities that are within the
publicly stated scope of this Committee’s investigation –
collusion with the Russian state to affect the outcome of
the 2016 election. I have every right to express my views in
Stone Open ng Statement F na
11 the public square. I actively participate in matters of great
public concern. I also believe, and you should too, my
friend, Tucker Carlson, who said last week, ‘You should
never accept, uncritically, the imprecise conclusions of
….the “intel community.’’
The mantra-like repetition of the claim by our vaunted
17 intelligence agencies that the “Russians” colluded with
the Trump campaign to affect the 2016 election, does not
make it so. These are, after all, the same entities who
insisted the North Koreans would not be able to launch a
viable rocket for 3-5 years, that insisted Saddam Hussein
was in possession of WMD, that there was no torture at
Abu Ghraib prison, and that the government had no bulk
Stone Open ng Statement F na
12 data collection program, until Edward Snowden revealed
otherwise. Our intelligence agencies have been politicized. I
realize they are deeply unhappy over President Trump’s
refusal to expand the proxy war in Syria and their failure to
obtain the no-fly zone promised to them by Hillary Clinton,
which would be an open invitation for World War III. That
the intelligence agencies have continued to leak, to the
detriment of President Trump, in violation of the law, is
proof positive of their politicization.
Members of this Committee have made three basic
assertions against me which must be rebutted here today.
The charge that I knew in advance about, and predicted, the
hacking of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s email,
Stone Open ng Statement F na
13 that I had advanced knowledge of the source or actual
content of the WikiLeaks disclosures regarding Hillary
Clinton or that, my now public exchange with a persona
that our intelligence agencies claim, but cannot prove, is a
Russian asset, is anything but innocuous and are entirely
false. Again, such assertions are conjecture, supposition,
projection, and allegations but none of them are facts.
For example, Mr. Schiff, the ranking member of this
Committee asked, “Is it a coincidence that Roger Stone
predicted that John Podesta would be a victim of a Russian
hack and have his private emails published, and did so even
before Mr. Podesta himself was fully aware that is private
emails would be exposed?” I want to know where I
Stone Open ng Statement F na
14 predicted this. Can Mr. Schiff read us the exact quote and
source from where I predicted the hacking or Mr. Podesta’s
email? Can Mr. Schiff even come up with a documented
quote where I use Podesta and email in the same sentence –
– before it happened?
My Tweet of August 21, 2016, in which I said, “Trust
me, it will soon be the Podesta’s time in the barrel.
#CrookedHillary” Must be examined in context. I posted
this at a time that my boyhood friend and colleague, Paul
Manafort, had just resigned from the Trump campaign over
allegations regarding his business activities in Ukraine. I
thought it manifestly unfair that John Podesta not be held
to the same standard. Note, that my Tweet of August 21,
Stone Open ng Statement F na
15 2016, makes no mention, whatsoever, of Mr. Podesta’s
email, but does accurately predict that the Podesta
brothers’ business activities in Russia with the oligarchs
around Putin, their uranium deal, their bank deal, and their
Gazprom deal, would come under public scrutiny. Podesta’s
activities were later reported by media outlets as diverse as
the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. My extensive
knowledge of the Podesta brothers’ business dealings in
Russia was based on The Panama Papers, which were
released in early 2016, which revealed that the Podesta
brothers had extensive business dealings in Russia. The
Tweet is also based on a comprehensive, early August
opposition research briefing provided to me by investigative
Stone Open ng Statement F na
16 journalist, Dr. Jerome Corsi, which I then asked him to
memorialize in a memo that he sent me on August 31 st , all
of which was culled from public records. There was no need
to have John Podesta’s email to learn that he and his
presidential candidate were in bed with the clique around
Putin. In fact, FactCheck.org, a news organization funded by
the Annenberg Foundation, reported, “There is nothing in
the public record so far that proves Stone, a political
operative and longtime Trump associate, predicted the
Podesta email hack.”
Now, let me address the charge that I had advance
knowledge of the timing, content and source of the
WikiLeaks disclosures from the DNC. On June 12, 2016,
Stone Open ng Statement F na
17 WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange, announced that he was
in possession of Clinton DNC emails. I learned this by
reading it on Twitter. I asked a journalist who I knew had
interviewed Assange to independently confirm this report,
and he subsequently did. This journalist assured me that
WikiLeaks would release this information in October and
continued to assure me of this throughout the balance of
August and all of September. This information proved to be
correct. I have referred publicly to this journalist as an,
“intermediary”, “go-between” and “mutual friend.” All of
these monikers are equally true.
In the March 20 th public session of this Committee, Mr.
Schiff asked former FBI Director Comey, “Are you aware
Stone Open ng Statement F na
18 that Mr. Stone also stated publicly that he was in direct
communication with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks?” The
way the question was asked was clearly designed to cast me
in a bad light. I have never said or written that I had any
direct communication with Julian Assange and have always
clarified in numerous interviews and speeches that my
communication
with
WikiLeaks
was
through
the
aforementioned journalist. Again, Mr. Schiff is guilty of a
false assertion.
The fact is that during the March 20 th Comey hearing
and many times subsequent, members of this Committee,
and even Democratic nominee for president, felt that they
Stone Open ng Statement F na
19 could go into the public square and make similar charges
without any substantiation or basis in fact.
Congressman Heck of Washington, stated, for example,
“… we’ve heard about quite a few individuals in the Trump
orbit who fell somewhere on that spectrum from mere
naïveté, disturbing enough if this naïveté is a feature of
those (who) were supposed to be running our country and
foreign policy, to unwitting Russian dupes, to willing
blindness, to active coordination. This rogues gallery
includes those already fired- Roger Stone, adviser to Donald
Trump…” This is the worst sort of neo-McCarthyism. To be
clear, I have never represented any Russian clients, have
never been to Russia, and never had any communication
Stone Open ng Statement F na
20 with any Russians or individuals fronting for Russians, in
connection with the 2016 presidential election.
To pile on, in an interview on MSNBC on May 19, 2017,
Congresswoman Speier felt compelled to say: “I believe that
Michael Caputo is part of this cabal including Roger Stone
and Paul Manafort, and others who had business
relationships with Russia.” No, I do not have and I’ve never
had any relationship with Russia or any Russian entity. You
have falsely accused me without any evidence – you should
apologize today.
One more apology I would demand in public, if she
were here today, is from presidential runner-up, Hillary
Clinton. Following the lead of the minority members of this
Stone Open ng Statement F na
21 Committee, in her new fiction book, she repeats the same
false narratives about me as if they were the truth…they
could not be further from the truth. 1
And then there is Congressmen Eric Swalwell who, as
reported in Newsmax, said, “From Roger Stone, we hope to
learn the same things we learned from Paul Manafort,
Carter Page, Don [Trump] Jr., and others who were
particularly active in their dealings with Russians during the
summer of 2016.” Has Mr. Swalwell read my exchange with
the Twitter persona which he alleges constitutes collusion?
The exchange is innocuous at best. Since I had no other
contact with Russians, what could he be referring to?
1
H ary C nton, What Happened, pps. 345, 347, 357 (2017).
Stone Open ng Statement F na
22 Finally, let me address this limited, benign, and now
entirely public exchange with a persona on Twitter calling
themselves Guccifer 2.0. While some in the intelligence
community have claimed that Guccifer 2.0 is a Russian cut-
out and that it is responsible for the hacking of the DNC
servers, neither of these assertions can be proven by this
Committee or the aforementioned intelligence community.
I wrote an article for Breitbart on August 5, 2016, in which I
express my view that Guccifer 2.0 was not a Russian asset,
at the same time reporting their claim taking credit for
hacking the DNC. My only exchange with Guccifer 2.0
would begin on August 14, 2016, after my article appeared,
and ran through September 9, 2016. Imagine my deep
Stone Open ng Statement F na
23 disappointment when Mr. Schiff purposefully conflated
these dates before this Committee, reversing them to
create the false impression that I had communicated with
Guccifer 2.0 on Twitter prior to publication of the article
questioning whether Guccifer 2.0 is a Russian cut-out.
Shame on you Mr. Schiff.
Now that more information is in the public domain, the
very question of whether Guccifer 2.0 hacked the DNC must
be revisited in light of the VIPS report cited by The Nation.
As they concluded, “Forensic investigations of documents
made public two weeks prior to the July 5 leak by the
person or entity known as Guccifer 2.0 show that they were
fraudulent: Before Guccifer posted them they were
Stone Open ng Statement F na
24 adulterated by cutting and pasting them into a blank
template that had Russian as its default language. Guccifer
took responsibility on June 15 for an intrusion the DNC
reported on June 14 and professed to be a WikiLeaks source
– claims essential to the official narrative implicating Russia
in what was soon cast as an extensive hacking operation. To
put the point simply, forensic science now devastates this
narrative.” I am left to conclude that the President is right
when he calls this Congressional investigation a, “witch-
hunt.”
Based on what we know now, it is clear that there was
a foreign nation which was colluding with a presidential
campaign in an attempt to influence the outcome of the
Stone Open ng Statement F na
25 2016 presidential election. Therefore, I strongly urge this
Committee to investigate the numerous, publicly
documented contacts between Ukraine and the Clinton
campaign, particularly in light of recent public reports that
Ukraine is now providing sophisticated missile technology
to North Korea.
Please do not continue to perpetuate falsehoods here
today.
Stone Open ng Statement F na
26
Date
August 8, 2015
March 19, 2016
March 28, 2016
June 7, 2016
June 9, 2016
June 12, 2016
June 14, 2016
June 15, 2016
June 27, 2016
July 22, 2016
August 5, 2016
August 8, 2016
August 14, 2016 – September 9
August 21, 2016
October 7, 2016
Event
Stone leaves campaign – no longer a paid consultant – Paid
August 2015.
Date reported that Podesta email hacked
Manafort hired by campaign
Candidate Trump announces that in the following week he would
make a major speech about all things that have taken place with
the Clintons
Trump Jr. has meeting with Russian lawyer
Assange announces WikiLeaks has obtained Clinton email
Washington Post reports that Russian hackers had been in the
DNC servers from June 2015 through June 2016
Guccifer 2.0 takes credit for DNC hack – The Smoking Gun
First hacked DNC emails leaked through @DCLeaks on Twitter
Wikileaks releases its first set of DNC email
Stone writes in Breitbart that the Clinton campaign was
scapegoating the Russians to hide the fact it was hacked by an
individual, Guccifer 2.0. (Stone has no reason to believe that
Guccifer is in any way connected to Russian interests. Guccifer is
an anonymous Twitter handle)
Stone, during speech, says he communicated with Assange.
Later clarifies that he had received information from a mutual
acquaintance. Stone speculates that Assange documents may be
related to Clinton Foundation (not the case)
Stone and Guccifer exchange Twitter messages when Stone
reaches out to lend support for Guccifer because it had been
kicked off Twitter. Exchange is innocuous. Stone does not bite on
data offered.
Stone Tweets that it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel.
The context is that Manafort was just pushed out of campaign
for ties to Russia/Ukraine. Stone was intimately familiar with
Podesta’s work in Russia and Ukraine (through Panama Papers)
and was suggesting that if Manafort was going to be pressed on
these relationships, so too should Podesta.
Wikileaks releases its first set of Podesta email
Stone Open ng Statement F na
27 Unt t ed Document
9/25/17 6 24 PM
The following are DMs between Roger Stone & Guccifer 2.0:
http //g 2 space/rs/
Page 1 of 2Unt t ed Document
http //g 2 space/rs/
9/25/17 6 24 PM
Page 2 of 2FactCheck: Misrepresenting Stone’s Prescience
5/24/17, 9:27 AM
News (Http://Www.philly.com/News) — Politics (http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics)
FactCheck: Misrepresenting
Stone’s Prescience
Updated: MARCH 28, 2017 — 6:44 PM EDT
ANDREW HARNIK / AP PHOTO
Roger Stone, political consultant for President-elect Donald Trump, boards an elevator at
Trump Tower in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016.
by Robert Farley, FactCheck.org
Rep. Adam Schiff laid out a series of “coincidences” to
build a circumstantial case that President Trump’s
campaign associates may have colluded with the Russians
during the 2016 presidential campaign. But one of his
“coincidences” is not an established fact.
“Is it a coincidence that Roger Stone predicted that
[Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman] John Podesta
would be a victim of a Russian hack and have his private
emails published, and did so even before Mr. Podesta
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/FactCheck-Misrepresenting-Stones-Prescience.html
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himself was fully aware that his private emails would be
exposed?” Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House
intelligence committee, said in his opening statement at a
March 20 hearing.
There is nothing in the public record so far that proves
Stone, a political operative and longtime Trump associate,
predicted the Podesta email hack.
Rather, Schiff is making an assumption, based on
connecting two events: a tweet that Stone sent out on Aug.
21 saying that it would soon be “Podesta’s time in the
barrel,” and the release of Podesta’s emails by WikiLeaks
two months later.
On ABC’s “This Week”
(http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-26-17-
sen-chuck-schumer-rep/story?
id 46372022&cid clicksource_903_null_vert_hed) on
March 26, Stone denied that he predicted Podesta’s emails
would be hacked, adding — correctly — that his tweet
never “made any reference to John Podesta’s email.” Stone
said his tweet referred to Podesta’s business dealings with
Russia, and the expectation that that would become a
news story.
Schiff ’s Case
On March 20, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a hearing
(http://intelligence.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID 769) at which FBI
Director James Comey took the unusual step of publicly confirming
(https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/hpsci-hearing-titled-russian-active-measures-
investigation) that the FBI investigation of Russian influence into the presidential
campaign “includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals
associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there
was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”
Ads by Z NC
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/FactCheck-Misrepresenting-Stones-Prescience.html
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Schiff, March 20: On August 8th, Roger Stone, a longtime Trump political
advisor and self-proclaimed political dirty trickster, boasts in his speech that he
has communicated with Assange and that more documents would be coming,
including an October surprise. In the middle of August, he also communicates
with the Russian cut out Guccifer 2.0 and authors a Breitbart piece denying
Guccifer’s links to Russian intelligence.
Then later, in August, Stone does something truly remarkable when he
predicts that John Podesta’s personal emails will soon be published.
“Trust me,” he says, “it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel.
#crookedHillary.” In the weeks that follow, Stone shows remarkable
prescience. “I have total confidence that WikiLeaks and my hero Julian Assange
will educate the American people soon,” he says, #LockHerUp.” “Payload
coming,” he predicts and two days later it does.
WikiLeaks releases its first batch of Podesta emails. The release of John
Podesta’s emails would then continue on a daily basis, up until the election. On
Election Day in November, Donald Trump wins. …
Is it a coincidence that Roger Stone predicted that John Podesta would be
a victim of a Russian hack and have his private emails published and did
so even before Mr. Podesta himself was fully aware that his private emails
would be exposed?
Schiff concluded that while it is possible the events he listed were “unhappy
coincidence,” it “is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not
coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated and that the Russians use the same
techniques to corrupt U.S. persons that they employed in Europe and elsewhere. We
simply don’t know, not yet. And we owe it to the country to find out.”
Whether some of the events highlighted by Schiff amount to anything may be left to
the FBI and congressional investigators to determine. But on the issue of Stone
predicting the hack of Podesta’s emails, Schiff makes a factual leap — one not
established in publicly shared evidence.
A Timeline
Stone, a longtime political operative who says he has no problem being called “a dirty
trickster” with “sharp elbows,” was employed by the Trump campaign for several
months early in the presidential campaign. Stone parted ways
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/FactCheck-Misrepresenting-Stones-Prescience.html
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assessment
(https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf ) released
on Jan. 6).
Stone did communicate with Guccifer 2.0 in 2016 in a series of Twitter messages
between Aug. 14 and Sept. 9 that Stone says he has since published
(http://stonecoldtruth.com/roger-stone-the-smoking-gun-aims-fires-misses/) in
their entirety. In a lengthy interview with Stone published by Politico
(http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/roger-stone-they-have-no-proof-236526) on
March 27, Stone said that after he posted his Breitbart article, he learned that Guccifer
2.0 — who he said he does not believe to be a Russian agent — was banned from
Twitter, and then was reinstated. Stone said he reached out to give Guccifer a social
media “high-five,” expressing his support for Guccifer’s reinstatement “because I’m
against censorship.”
The rest of the messages, Stone says, are pretty innocuous. In one, Guccifer 2.0 writes,
“please tell me if I can help u anyhow.” But there is no record that Stone replied to that
message. Twice, Stone asks Guccifer 2.0 to retweet his articles, and in one, Guccifer
makes a benign comment about an article on election strategy, which Stone replies is
“Pretty Standard.”
Stone also revealed during a speech
(https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/09/roger-stone-confirms-hes-
communication-julian-assange/212261) to the Southwest Broward Republican
Organization on Aug. 8 that he had “communicated with Assange.”
“I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but
there’s no telling what the October surprise may be,” Stone said.
Stone later clarified that he never spoke directly with Assange, but that the two have a
mutual journalist friend — or what Stone referred to in a tea party speech as a “back-
channel intermediary” — who told him in August that Assange “has the mother lode on
Hillary [Clinton]” and that those emails would be released in October.
Stone said the information he received was no more specific than that, but enough to
prompt him to make repeated statements
(http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/politics/kfile-roger-stone-wikileaks-claims/) and
social media messages predicting upcoming bombshells related to Clinton. Stone said
he also speculated that the hacked emails were related to the Clinton Foundation.
Stone says his Aug. 21 tweet about Podesta — that it would soon be Podesta’s “time in
the barrel” — had nothing to do with hacked emails, though. Two days prior, Trump’s
campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, quit the campaign
(https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/us/politics/paul-manafort-resigns-donald-
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trump.html?_r 0&mtrref en.wikipedia.org) amid media reports
(https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-
trump.html?
_r 0&mtrref undefined&gwh 8CD139BFF89617C34977B3E9C8CADD3F&gwt pay) about
prior business dealings with Russia-aligned leaders in Ukraine.
Stone said he was aware that Podesta also had business ties to Russia, and that
journalists were beginning to look into those. That’s what prompted the tweet, he said.
Indeed, earlier that year, media accounts (http://observer.com/2016/04/panama-
papers-reveal-clintons-kremlin-connection/) based on the so-called Panama Papers
(https://panamapapers.icij.org/) reported that Podesta’s company, the Podesta Group,
had been hired to lobby on behalf of one of Russia’s biggest financial institutions. And
in October, the Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-podesta-and-
the-russians-1477262565) published an opinion piece on business ties between
Podesta and a Russia-backed investment firm.
In an Oct. 19 story for Breitbart, (http://www.breitbart.com/hillary-
clinton/2016/10/19/stone-wikileaks-mike-morell-russia/) Stone said Podesta’s
business ties to Russia were the motivation for the tweet.
Stone, Oct. 19, Breitbart: This because of a tweet I posted in August at the time
my boyhood friend and colleague Paul Manafort was under attack for his
perfectly legal work in Ukraine for a democratic political party. I predicted that
Podesta’s business dealings would be exposed. I didn’t hear it from WikiLeaks,
although Julian Assange and I share a common friend. I reported the story on
my website (https://stonecoldtruth.com/blog/2016/10/13/russian-mafia-
money-laundering-the-clinton-foundation-and-john-podesta/).
So let’s be clear. I had no advance notice of WikiLeaks’ hacking of Podesta’s e-mails.
“There is no foreshadowing of Podesta’s email,” Stone said in his interview with
Politico. “That’s speculation. It’s conjecture.” Stone said any claim that he
“orchestrated or strategized or knew the scope of what they [WikiLeaks] had and the
scope of what they intended to release is false.”
Stone has volunteered to testify before the House intelligence committee, and he says
he’d like it to be in public.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/FactCheck-Misrepresenting-Stones-Prescience.html
Page 7 of 9FactCheck: Misrepresenting Stone’s Prescience
5/24/17, 9:27 AM
A spokesperson for Schiff emailed us this statement: “During his opening statement,
Ranking Member Schiff laid out the public record of Mr. Stone’s statements, including
his tweeted prediction regarding Podesta, his direct communications and defense of
Guccifer 2.0, and his claims to be in contact with Julian Assange, either directly or
through an intermediary. Along with a host of other issues of concern, Mr. Schiff
stated that these matters could be completely coincidental – or they may not – but
they do bear examination in any thorough investigation; in the context of the Russian
Active Measures campaign during the election, these are questions that must be
answered. At an appropriate time, the Committee will call Mr. Stone to testify, and Mr.
Stone can answer these questions and others based on both public reporting and any
other pertinent evidence.”
Schiff is free to question what Stone meant by the tweet. But in the intelligence
hearing, Schiff stated as a matter of fact that Stone predicted the release of Podesta’s
hacked emails, and questioned whether Stone’s prediction was a coincidence or
evidence of collusion with Russia. More information may emerge as a result of FBI and
congressional investigations, but based on what is currently in the public domain, it’s
not an established fact that Stone knew in advance that Podesta’s emails were hacked
and would be published in October.
Published: March 28, 2017 — 6:44 PM EDT
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Page 8 of 9FactCheck: Misrepresenting Stone’s Prescience
5/24/17, 9:27 AM
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Page 9 of 9Memo: Aug. 31, 2016
From:
Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.
To:
Roger Stone
RE:
John Podesta Ties to Russia
PODESTA
NEW YORK – A much overlooked report by CNN published on Aug. 19,
2016, highlighting that the FBI had begun an investigation of former Trump
campaign chairman Paul Manafort for his involvement in Ukraine,
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/19/politics/paul-manafort-donald-trump-
ukraine/index.html CNN also reported the FBI was also investigating the
Podesta Group to the Ukrainian government and the alleged corruption by
the party of the former president Victor Yanukovych.
The Podesta Group is widely known to Washington insiders as the lobbying
and public relations firm run by Tony Podesta, the brother of Clinton
campaign chairman John Podesta – the former chief of staff for President
Bill Clinton, who founded in 2003 the Center for American Progress, which
functions in D.C. as a George Soros-funded liberal think tank that continues
to exert public policy influence on both the Obama administration and the
Clinton presidential campaign.
FBI investigates Podesta Group’s Russian ties
CNN further reported on Aug. 19 the Podesta Group had issued a statement
affirming the firm has retained the boutique Washington-based law
http://www.capdale.com firm Caplin & Drysdale “to determine if we were
mislead by the Centre for a Modern Ukraine or any other individuals with
potential ties to foreign governments or political parties.”
The Podesta Group statement issued to CNN continued: “When the Centre
became a client, it certified in writing that ‘none of the activities of the
Centre are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed or
subsidized in whole or in part by a government of a foreign country or a
foreign political party.’ We relied on that certification and advice from
counsel in registering and reporting under the Lobbying Disclosure Act
rather than the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”
1The CNN statement concluded with the statement, “We will take whatever
measures are necessary to address this situation based on Caplin &
Drysdale’s review, including possible legal action against the Centre.”
In breaking the story that the Podesta Group had hired Caplin & Drysdale,
Buzz Feed https://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/top-lobbying-firm-hires-
outside-counsel-in-ukraine-manafort?utm term=.duLexkeKBx#.rj4gn3gmln
reported on Aug. 19, that both the Podesta Group and Manafort’s D.C.
political firm were working under contract with the same group advising
Yanukovych and his Ukrainian Party of Regions – namely the non-profit
European Centre for a Modern Ukraine based in Brussels.
On Dec. 20, 2013, Reuters reported http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-
ukraine-lobbying-idUSBRE9BJ1B220131220#6oTXxKZp25obYxzF.99 the
European Centre for a Modern Ukraine paid $900,000 to the Podesta Group
for a two-year contract aimed at improving the image of the Yanukovych
government in the United States that the Podesta Group told Reuters they
were implementing through contacts with key congressional Democrats.
Podesta Group undermines Democratic Party narrative attacking
Manafort and Trump
Mainstream media attention has focused on the contract Manafort’s K-Street
firm Davis, Manafort & Freedman had tracing back to 2007 with
Yanukovych’s
political
party,
Ukraine’s
Party
of
Regions,
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06KIEV473 a.html to perform an
“extreme makeover,” repositioning the party from being perceived as a
“haven for Donetsk-based mobsters and oligarchs” into that of a legitimate
political party.
On Feb. 21, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29761799
Russian leader Vladimir Putin helped then President Yanukovych to flee
violent protests seeking to oust him from office, by flaying out of Ukraine
and traveling through Crimea, to arrive Russia, where he has remained,
trying desperately to restore himself to power back home in Kiev.
In Manafort’s case, opponents have failed to document Manafort ever
received some $12.7 million in some 22 previously undisclosed cash
payments from Yanukovych’s pro-Russian party as supposedly documented
by “black ledger” entries revealed by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption
2Bureau. Yet, this “evidence” was sufficient for New York Times reporters
to concludehttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-
ukraine-donald-trump.html that Manafort had hidden back-channel ties to
Putin financed by under-the-table payments arranged via Ukraine.
From
there,
the
Democratic
Party
narrative
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-08-15/ukraine-documents-
detail-cash-payments-to-paul-manafort charges Manafort never registered as
a foreign agent with the U.S. Justice Department that would only have been
required if he was contracted with the Ukrainian government, not with a
political party in the Ukraine, and that Manafort transferred his close
relationship with Putin (via Yanukovych) to the Trump campaign.
From there, the Democratic Party narrative continues to suggest Manafort’s
close relationship to the Kremlin allowed him to position the Trump
campaign to receive a dump of hacked emails that embarrassed the Clinton
campaign by exposing the efforts Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as chairman
of the DNC, took to rig the primaries for Hillary, to the distinct disadvantage
of challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The entire Democratic Party narrative is thrown into disarray if it turns out
the Podesta brothers, via the Podesta Group, have tighter and more easily
documentable financial ties to Russia, involving far greater numbers than
have ever been suggested to tie Manafort to Russia via Ukraine.
Podesta Group, D.C. lobbyist for Russian bank accused in Ukraine of
terrorist ties
Among the revelations made public through the 11.5 million documents
leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists detailing
the legal and financial arrangements behind secretive off-shore banking
transactions dating back to the 1970s was the disclosure
http://observer.com/2016/04/panama-papers-reveal-clintons-kremlin-
connection/ Russia’s largest bank, the state-owned Sherbank, uses the
Podesta Group as its registered lobbyist in Washington.
“Sberbank (Savings Bank in Russian) engaged the Podesta Group to help its
public image—leading Moscow financial institutions not exactly being
known for their propriety and wholesomeness—and specifically to help lift
some of the pain of sanctions placed on Russia in the aftermath of the
3Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine, which has caused real pain to the
country’s hard-hit financial sector,” http://observer.com/2016/04/panama-
papers-reveal-clintons-kremlin-connection/ wrote former National Security
Agency
analyst
and
counterintelligence
officer
http://observer.com/author/john-r-schindler/ John R. Schindler in an article
entitled “Panama Papers Reveal Clinton’s Kremlin Connection” published
by the Observer on April 7, 2016.
“It’s hardly surprising that Sberbank sought the help of Democratic insiders
like the Podesta Group to aid them in this difficult hour, since they clearly
understand how American politics work,” Schindler continued.
“The question is why the Podesta Group took Sberbank’s money,” Schindler
asked. “That financial institution isn’t exactly hiding in the shadows—it’s
the biggest bank in Russia, and its reputation leaves a lot to be desired.
Nobody acquainted with Russian finance was surprised that Sberbank
wound up in the Panama Papers.”
Schindler noted that since the 1990s, Sberbank has grown to be Russia’s
dominant bank, controlling nearly 30 percent of Russia’s aggregate banking
assets and employing a quarter-million people. The majority stockholder in
Sberbank is Russia’s Central Bank, making Sberbank functionally an arm of
the Russian government, though officially Sberbank is a private institution.
“Certainly Western intelligence is well acquainted with Sberbank, noting its
close relationship with Vladimir Putin and his regime. Funds moving
through Sberbank are regularly used to support clandestine Russian
intelligence operations, while the bank uses its offices abroad as cover for
the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service or SVR,” Schindler pointed out.
A NATO counterintelligence official explained that Sberbank, which has
outposts in almost two dozen foreign countries, “functions as a sort of arm
of the SVR outside Russia, especially because many of its senior employees
are ‘former’ Russian intelligence officers.” Inside the country, Sberbank has
an equally cosy relationship with the Federal Security Service or FSB,
Russia’s powerful domestic intelligence agency.
On
April
17,
2014,
the
Moscow
Times
reported
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/ukraine-charges-russias-sberbank-with-
4financing-terrorism-34125 Ukraine opened criminal proceedings against
Sberbank and 13 other banks on suspicion of “financing terrorism.”
Schindler noted the Ukrainian criminal infestation concluded Sberbank had
distributed millions of dollars in illegal aid to Russian-backed separatists
fighting in eastern Ukraine, with the bank serving as “a witting supporter of
Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
On April 5, 2016, http://freebeacon.com/issues/panama-papers-implicate-
podesta-client/ Lachlan Markay reporting in the Washington Free Beacon
published
http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=8a5b
d4fb-2687-4cdf-9906-0a65f4d8d52b&filingTypeID=1
the
lobbying
registration form the Podesta Group filed with the U.S. government proving
Sberbank had contracted with the Podesta Group to advance their interests
with banking, trade, and foreign relations.
Markay further reported that according to the Organized Crime and
Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of journalists exploring the
Panama Papers leak, Sberbank and Troika Dialog have ties to companies
used by members of Putin’s inner circle to funnel state resources into
lucrative private investments.
“Some of these companies were initially connected to the Troika Dialog
investment fund, which was controlled and run by Sberbank after the bank
bought the Troika Dialog investment bank. Troika and Sberbank declined to
comment,” Markay noted the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting
Project, concluded https://www.occrp.org/en/panamapapers/the-secret-
caretaker/ in a report published in April 2016.
On
March
30,
2016,
Politico
reported
http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-influence/2016/03/etsy-registers-
podesta-for-sberbank-lend-lease-cov-for-bacardi-livingston-for-curacao-and-
st-maarten-pizza-for-hillary-213495 the Podesta Group registered to lobby
for the U.S. subsidiary of Sherbank to see if relief could be obtained for the
bank in the easing of U.S. sanctions against Russia for Russia’s role in the
Ukraine conflict.
The Podesta Group and the Russian uranium scam
5On
Aug.
20,
2016,
Breitbart
reporter
Jerome
Hudson
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/08/20/fbi-doj-launch-probe-
firm-clinton-campaign-chairman-john-podesta/ documented that the Podesta
Group
was
paid
a
total
of
$180,000
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientlbs.php?id=D000065156&year=201
5 according to public records for the consulting work done under contract
with the Russia-controlled firm Uranium One in 2012, 2014, and 2015.
The
Daily
Caller
reported
on
April
29,
2015,
http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/29/firm-co-founded-by-hillarys-campaign-
chair-lobbies-for-russias-uranium-one/ that the Podesta group was to lobby
the State Department while Hillary was secretary of state, with $40,000 of
the total paid to lobby the State Department, the Senate, and the National
Security Council on “international mining projects.”
As first documented in Peter Schweizer’s bestselling book “Clinton Cash,”
and confirmed in Jerome Corsi’s bestselling book “Partners in Crime: The
Clinton’s Scheme to Monetize the White House,” Uranium One directed
millions to the Clinton Foundation as the Russian government gained
ownership of the company.
New York Times reporters Jo Becker and Mike McIntire, in an article
entitled “Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal,”
that
the
newspaper
printed
on
April
23,
2015,
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-
as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html? r=2 documented
the tie between the Russians and the Clinton Foundation as the Uranium One
deal evolved.
“As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three
separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of
cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation,” Becker and McIntire wrote.
“Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four
donations totaling $2.35 million,” the New York Times reporters continued.
“Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an
agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly
identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as
well.”
6Becker and McIntire further noted that shortly after the Russians announced
their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Bill Clinton
received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank
with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.
CIFUS is the acronym for https://www.treasury.gov/resource-
center/international/Pages/Committee-on-Foreign-Investment-in-US.aspx
the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the inter-agency
committee of the U.S. government, operating out of the U.S. Treasury, that
is responsible to review and authorize transactions of a U.S. business that
could result in a foreign person or entity undermining U.S. national security
interests.
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was a member of CIFUS and she was
the only presidential candidate in 2008 to make an issue of the importance of
strengthening CIFUS to protect U.S. economic sovereignty and national
security.
In
October
2010,
CIFUS
http://www.breitbart.com/big-
government/2015/05/04/clinton-cash-uranium-deal-approved-by-foreign-
investment-committee-52-days-after-shareholders-finalized-takeover/
reviewed and approved the Rosatom acquisition of majority control in
Uranium One before the deal was done.
In
2013,
Rosatom
http://www.breitbart.com/big-
government/2015/07/02/senate-judiciary-committee-chairman-demands-doj-
answer-questions-about-hillarys-role-in-uranium-deal/
acquired
all
remaining shares of Uranium One. Becker and McIntire estimated that by
2015, after getting CIFUS approval, the Russians ended up controlling one-
fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States.
Imam Fethullah Gullen’s ties to Clinton Foundation and Podesta Group
In the wake of the recent coup attempt in Turkey, Turkey’s president, Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan, has mounted an aggressive crackdown against Imam
Fethulla Gulen and his followers, known as Gulenists.
Erdoğan, who was once allied with Gulen, has even personally asked
President Obama to extradite the 74-year-old guru, who has lived in self-
exile in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains since 1999.
7State Department emails produced as part of a Judicial Watch FOIA request
include an email dated April 1, 2009 in which a Gulen follower named
Gokhan Ozkok asked Clinton deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin for help in
connecting one of his allies to President Obama.
Ozkok is founding board member of the Turkish Cultural Center and part of
a network of businesses and non-profits affiliated with the Gulen movement,
also known as Hizmet.
On July 13, 2016, the Daily Caller http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/13/new-
ties-emerge-between-clinton-and-mysterious-islamic-cleric/ reported Ozkok
served as national finance co-chair of the pro-Clinton Ready PAC.
He gave $10,000 to the committee in 2014 and $2,700 to Clinton’s
campaign last year.
The Daily Caller also noted Ozkok is listed on the Turkish Cultural Center’s
website (a reference that apparently has been scrubbed since the publication
of that information) as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, one of the
non-profit arms of the Clinton Foundation, who has given between $25,000
and $50,000 to the Clinton charity.
The Daily Caller further reported a link between Gulenists and the Clinton
orbit was revealed in a lobbying registration disclosure filed on May 2, 2016,
with the U.S. Senate.
The lobbying disclosure filed by the Podesta Group with the Senate shows
that a Gulen-aligned group called the Alliance for Shared Values hired the
Clinton-connected Podesta Group to lobby Congress on its behalf.
According to the Daily Caller report, the group apparently seeks to lobby for
the “promotion of peace, tolerance and interfaith dialogue.”
John Podesta briefly served as Clinton Foundation CEO
According
to
a
New
York
Times
report
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/us/politics/unease-at-clinton-
foundation-over-finances-and-ambitions.html?hp&_r=1&&pagewanted=all
published Aug. 13, 2013, in 2011, a wave of midlevel program staff
members departed the Clinton Foundation, “reflecting the frustration of
8much of the foundation’s policy personnel with the old political hands
running the organization.”
Around that time, in 2011, Bruce Lindsey, then the Clinton Foundation’s
CEO, suffered a stroke, underscoring concerns about the foundation’s line of
succession. John D. Podesta, a chief of staff in Mr. Clinton’s White House,
stepped in for several months as temporary chief executive.
9
