President Trump’s longtime associate Roger Stone was in contact with a New York radio personality who had conversations with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 campaign season, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The radio host, Randy Credico, is the individual Stone referred to as an intermediary between him and Assange. Stone initially declined to reveal his name to the House Intelligence Committee because he said they had an “off-the-record” conversation, though he insisted there was nothing untoward about their conversation. Stone later did privately disclose the identity of the individual to the panel.
Credico received a subpoena this week to appear Dec. 15 before the House Intelligence Committee, something Credico’s attorney Martin Stolar says he “certainly” plans to comply with. Credico tweeted out a copy of the subpoena on Tuesday.
“He’s had conversations with Julian Assange,” Stolar said of Credico, noting that Assange and Stone both were guests on his radio program. Stolar said his client also had separate conversations with Assange, but he declined to confirm that Credico was the go-between identified by Stone.
In a Facebook post Thursday morning, Stone confirmed that Credico was his WikiLeaks contact. He defended Credico, saying he had initially declined to identify him because he was concerned the exposure would harm Credico’s career.
“The Committee is wasting their time. He merely confirmed what Assange had said publicly,” Stone wrote. “Credico never said he knew or had any information as to source or content of the material Mr. Credico never said he confirmed this information with Mr. Assange himself. Mr. Stone knew Credico had his own sources within WikiLeaks and is credible. Credico turned out to be 100 % accurate.”
Stone has vigorously denied that he colluded with Russia or had any advanced knowledge of the Russian hacking and WikiLeaks’ leaking of thousands of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
Credico is a radio personality and political satirist based in New York. He’s previously run for office in New York, including for mayor in 2013.
On his radio show, Credico has had both Assange and Stone appear as guests, and he met with Assange in person earlier this year.
In a NY1 interview earlier this week, Credico did not say whether he was Stone’s intermediary to Assange.
“You believe that story? Let me just say this. I am not at liberty courtesy of my counsel to talk about Roger Stone or to talk about WikiLeaks or to talk about Julian Assange, because these are both guests that appear on my show,” Credico said. “And by talking to you about it, that could give them the tire iron to get me to talk.”
Credico, who says he backed Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the election and supports liberal causes like legalizing marijuana, wouldn’t say whether he would answer the committee’s questions, citing First Amendment protections as a journalist.
“I’m going to have to appear before them,” he said. “I’m not sure I’m going to talk to them.”
The identity of Stone’s intermediary to WikiLeaks has been one of the lingering questions in the congressional investigations into Russia’s election meddling.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Stone appeared to predict on a few occasions that WikiLeaks would soon release damaging information about Hillary Clinton, including stating that it would be Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s “time in the barrel” ahead of the WikiLeaks’ release of Podesta’s emails.
Stone has denied he had any prior knowledge of the Podesta email release, saying he was referring to his own research into Podesta.
When he testified before the House Intelligence Committee in September, Stone denied any direct contact with Assange.
“On June 12, 2016, WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange, announced that he was in possession of Clinton DNC emails. I learned this by reading it on Twitter,” Stone wrote in an opening statement.
“I asked a journalist who I knew had interviewed Assange to independently confirm this report, and he subsequently did,” Stone wrote. “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.”
After Stone’s closed-door hearing, he told reporters that he had answered all of the committee’s questions but one: the identity of his connection to Assange.
At the time, Stone argued that his intermediary was a journalist, and his conversation was off-the-record.
“I’m not going to burn somebody I spoke to off-the-record,” Stone said. “If he releases me, if he allows me to release it, I would be happy to give it to the committee. I’m actually going to try to do that.”
But Reps. Mike Conaway of Texas and Adam Schiff of California, the Republican and Democrat leading the panel’s Russia probe, threatened to subpoena Stone for the identity of his intermediary.
Ahead of the deadline set by Conaway and Schiff, Stone’s attorney said last month that the longtime Trump confidante had complied with the committee’s demands, though he did not elaborate any further.
This story has been updated to include comments from Stone.
