FBI documents reveal communication between Stone, Assange

Weeks after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel in the Russia investigation, Roger Stone, a confidant of President Donald Trump, reassured WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a Twitter message that if prosecutors came after him, I will bring down the entire house of cards," according to FBI documents made public on Tuesday.

The records reveal the extent of communications between Stone and Assange, whose anti-secrecy website published Democratic emails hacked by Russians during the 2016 presidential election, and underscore efforts by Trump allies to gain insight about the release of information they expected would embarrass Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

The documents FBI affidavits submitted to obtain search warrants in the criminal investigation into Stone were released following a court case brought by The Associated Press and other media organisations.

They were made public as Stone, convicted last year in Mueller's investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, awaits a date to surrender to a federal prison system that has grappled with outbreaks of the coronavirus.

In a June 2017 Twitter direct message cited in the records, Stone reassured Assange that the issue was still nonsense and said as a journalist it doesn't matter where you get information only that it is accurate and authentic."
"With the trumped-up sexual assault charges dropped I don't know of any crime you need to be pardoned for best regards. R."
According to the documents, Assange, who is imprisoned in London and is fighting his extradition to the United States, responded to Stone's 2017 Twitter message by saying: "Between CIA and DoJ they're doing quite a lot. On the DoJ side that's coming most strongly from those obsessed with taking down Trump trying to squeeze us into a deal."
"There is, to this day, no evidence that I had or knew about the source or content of the Wikileaks disclosures prior to their public release."