Roger Stone to testify in House investigation into Russia’s election meddling
The longtime Trump associate will testify in closed-door session.
— -- Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Trump, will testify before the House Intelligence Committee on July 24 in a closed-door session, ABC News has learned.
Stone's scheduled appearance before the committee, which is investigating Russia's interference in the U.S. election in 2016 and possible ties to Trump associates, was first reported by Politico.
"Roger Stone has been maligned by innuendo and misinformation regarding all of the events surrounding this investigation," an attorney for Stone said in a statement. "Roger looks forward to using his time in front of the committee to set the record straight and providing a timeline based only on fact that will clearly establish that those on the committee who have misrepresented the facts regarding his involvement, did so based on false information and incorrect assumptions. I know my client looks forward to his testimony."
Stone has strongly denied any notion that he or others in the Trump campaign may have colluded with Russia in its interference in the election.
“I have had no contacts or collusion with the Russians,” Stone told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” in March. “There is no collusion, none -- at least none that I know about, in Donald Trump's campaign for president.”
Stephanopoulos asked Stone about a tweet he sent on Aug. 21, which read, “Trust me, it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel.”
Weeks later, Podesta’s emails were hacked and posted to WikiLeaks. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia was behind the email hacking of Podesta and other Democrats.
“That was your tweet,” Stephanopoulos said to Stone. “And two months later the emails came out.”
“Correct,” Stone said. But, he said his tweet made no mention of Podesta’s emails. Stone insisted he was referring to Podesta’s business dealings.
“I never made any reference to John Podesta’s email. There were a dozen stories about his business dealings published after that [tweet],” Stone said.