House Intel votes to release Roger Stone transcript to Mueller

The House Intelligence Committee voted Thursday to release the official witness transcript of Roger Stone to special counsel Robert Mueller’s office.

A congressional source told The Hill that committee members voted to hand over the transcript in a unanimous voice vote.

{mosads}The Washington Post first reported Wednesday that the special counsel’s office had requested the official copy of Stone’s transcript from his interview last year with congressional investigators. Former federal prosecutors told the newspaper that it could mean that the special counsel is preparing to charge Stone.

The special counsel’s office declined to comment.

Stone, a longtime friend of President Trump and a onetime Trump campaign adviser, caught the eye of the special counsel’s office after statements he made during the 2016 presidential election in which he suggested he had prior knowledge that WikiLeaks had hacked Democratic emails and would release them ahead of the election.

Stone has denied that he worked with WikiLeaks ahead of the Democratic email dumps. He told The Hill earlier this year that he was tipped off by a source with inside knowledge about the organization who said that it had information that would “roil” the 2016 presidential election.

Stone told The Hill on Thursday that he has not heard from the special counsel’s office about the request.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who is overseeing the committee’s investigation into Russia’s election interference, told reporters after the vote on Thursday that he wasn’t sure if the request was from the special counsel’s office. Still, he said the committee wouldn’t have agreed to hand over the transcript unless the ask was made of them.

Stone’s attorney Grant Smith provided The Hill with a copy of a letter sent to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Wednesday, requesting that, in light of The Washington Post’s report on Mueller requesting the transcript, the document be made public immediately.

“Without regard to any decision or action the Committee may take in response to a request by the [special counsel’s office], or any other person or agency, for a copy of the Interview transcript, either in whole or in part, Mr. Stone hereby demands the full and immediate release to the general public of the Transcript, such that the American citizenry and the world are able to evaluate for themselves Mr. Stone’s veracity,” the letter reads. 

The committee previously voted to release the transcripts of witness interviews in the probe. Those records are currently under review by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence before they can be released.

Stone is facing increased scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers on the committee, who have recently said that the former Trump campaign adviser may have lied while testifying under oath.

Those lawmakers, including likely incoming panel Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), claim that Stone’s statements under oath are at odds with publicly released emails about WikiLeaks exchanged between him and fellow Mueller probe witness Jerome Corsi. 

Stone has repeatedly denied that he lied before the committee, saying that he did not amend his testimony but only updated it with information that backs up his version of events.

WikiLeaks’s release of hacked Democratic emails in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election has been an area of focus for Mueller. Earlier this year, he indicted 12 Russian military officers in the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Several of those officers were sanctioned by the Treasury Department for alleged election interference on Wednesday.

Stone has also been an area of intensive interest for the special counsel, who has subpoenaed and questioned several of the Trump ally’s associates.

And Stone recently rebuffed a request from the Senate to appear before and hand over documents to investigators, asserting his Fifth Amendment rights.

Stone also said that he would not testify against the president, earning him a tweet from Trump praising the move.

“I will never testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!”

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018

—Updated at 12:10 p.m.