A top adviser to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday accused a longtime Donald Trump aide of receiving “advance warning” about WikiLeaks’ plans to publish thousands of hacked emails and suggested the Republican candidate is aiding the unprecedented Russian interference in American politics.
Clinton adviser John Podesta pointed the finger at Trump adviser Roger Stone, who he said has been in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Podesta also raised as evidence an August tweet in which Stone said Podesta’s “time in the barrel” was coming. The tweet was sent shortly after WikiLeaks published scores of hacked emails from other Democratic officials.
“I think it’s a reasonable assumption, or at least a reasonable conclusion, that Mr. Stone and the Trump campaign had advance warning about what Assange was going to do,” Podesta told reporters aboard the Clinton campaign plane. Podesta acknowledged the evidence was “circumstantial.”
Stone, in an email to The Associated Press late Tuesday, called Podesta’s assertion “categorically false” and “without foundation.”
