However, progressive radio host/comedian Randy Credico claimed on Twitter that the "story regarding Stone...by NBC News was meant to divert attention from" a Wall Street Journal article written by Shelby Holliday and Aruna Viswanatha published on Wednesday. "Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office is exploring whether longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone tried to intimidate and discredit a witness who is contradicting Mr. Stone’s version of events about his contacts with WikiLeaks, according to people who have spoken to Mr. Mueller’s investigators," Holliday and Viswantha reported.
Earlier today, Credico told me - via direct messages on Twitter - that the former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump was "cherry picking information" in order to pretend that the radio host who interviewed Julian Assange for WBAI Radio in August of 2016 was a "back channel" for WikiLeaks.
According to texts that Roger Stone shared with NBC News, Credico texted the "political hitman" on October 1, 2016 that there would be “[b]ig news Wednesday" and, as a result, “Hillary’s campaign will die this week."
Credico explained that he "started out as a [Bernie] Sanders supporter and was upset," and that he had switched to Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein after the Vermont senator dropped out and endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"I was hoping that Hillary would not win by 20 points," Credico added. "[T]he day that Trump won I was at a Stein event and when I started seeing results favoring Trump I knew he was going to win and I walked home more depressed than I've ever been in my entire life." The progressive radio host who supports WikiLeaks called his interactions with Stone a "big mistake."
NBC News also reported that Credico texted Stone on October 3, 2016, "Why can't you get Trump to come out and say that he would give Julian Assange Asylum[?]"
Credico argues, "I wasn't doing it for a pardon", and that "it was a bad calculation." If "you want to look at the state of the nation under Trump I'll probably never get over it."
"I was not a back-channel and I stand by my testimony in front of the grand jury," Credico said. "Stone is cherry picking information." Credico then compared himself to French officer Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely convicted of treason in 1894, but wasn't fully exonerated until 1906, even though evidence suggested that another officer had actually acted as a spy for Germany. Like Credico, Dreyfus was of Jewish descent, and many French journalists suspected that anti-semitism played a factor in his wrongful conviction.
"I'm ready and I've told my lawyer this to revoke my 5th Privileges and go before the house Intel committee and tell them everything," Credico said.
Credico then provided details about his actions during the late September to early October of 2016 time period. "I was in London the 28th, 29th and 30th and came back on the 1st to New York. I spent 3 days with a fellow by the name of Barry Crimmins, a political satirist who died 5 months ago. I dropped off a letter from the station that I was working for WBAI at the embassy. And left on the 1st."
He said he "never had any information" regarding any WikiLeaks-related drops regarding Clinton, and that he would "swear on the soul of [his] grandchildren" that he is telling the truth.
"Stone had been talking about a back channel for ages," Credico said. "So he put me in that role." Credico explained, "I was basing my prediction on public statements made by WikiLeaks that they would do something in October. So I said wow this is going to be a bad week for Hillary. Cuz I was expecting them to do something."
The Wall Street Journal reported, "Prosecutors also are examining messages between Messrs. Stone and Credico that involve the radio personality’s decision to assert his Fifth Amendment before Congress, according to a person familiar with the probe...In emails sent to Mr. Credico and reviewed by the Journal, Mr. Stone threatened to 'sue the f—' out of him, called him 'a loser a liar and a rat' and told him to 'prepare to die c— sucker.'"
On November 2nd, CNN reported, "Investigators have been examining the text messages and emails and questioning witnesses about whether there was an attempt to harass or intimidate Credico, according to people familiar with the matter."
"The messages raise the possibility that Mueller could pursue obstruction or witness tampering charges against Stone," the CNN story by Sara Murray added."
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