Hollis Johnson
- The special counsel Robert Mueller named several anonymous individuals and entities in his indictment of Roger Stone, a longtime GOP strategist who was an adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign.
- Stone was charged on Friday with seven counts related to witness tampering, obstruction, and false statements.
- Two of the unnamed individuals - Jerome Corsi and Randy Credico - were allegedly used by Stone as intermediaries to communicate with WikiLeaks, and its founder Julian Assange, during the 2016 presidential election.
The special counsel Robert Mueller referred to several unnamed individuals and entities in his 24-page indictment of Roger Stone, a longtime GOP strategist who was an informal adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign.
The indictment centers around Stone's contacts with WikiLeaks, its founder Julian Assange, and the Russian hacker Guccifer 2.0 during the 2016 presidential election. It also details how Stone allegedly made multiple false statements during his testimony before Congress.
Mueller charged Stone with one count of obstruction, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering, according to a Justice Department filing on Thursday. Stone was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Friday.
Among those false statements are claims about Stone's communications with the unnamed individuals listed below.
- "Organization 1": WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks is the group, run by Julian Assange, that published thousands of emails stolen by Russian intelligence officials written by Democrats during the 2016 presidential election.
- "Company 1": CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike is the cybersecurity firm that first discovered that Russian hackers had breached the Democratic National Committee's email servers in the spring of 2016.
- "Person 1": The far-right commentator Jerome Corsi
Jerome Corsi is an associate of Stone's, a documented conspiracy theorist, and a central figure in Mueller's probe.
The indictment charges that Stone never disclosed to the House Intelligence Committee that he was using Corsi as an intermediary between himself and WikiLeaks. Stone is also charged with telling Corsi to ask Assange to release damaging information about Clinton.
Corsi, who was previously the Washington bureau chief of conspiracists website InfoWars, said in November that he was offered a plea deal by the special counsel for one count of perjury relating to statements made about WikiLeaks and Assange, but that he didn't take it.
- "Person 2": Radio host Randy Credico
Credico is a radio host and repeatedly-unsuccessful political candidate who Stone said he used as an intermediary to communicate with Assange. Credico, who has testified under oath in the Mueller probe, denies this.
According to the indictment, Credico told Stone that WikiLeaks had "kryptonite on Hillary" before the group released Clinton's emails.
The indictment charges that Stone "made deliberately false and misleading statements" regarding his communications with Credico.
Stone and Credico used to be close, but the two men had a falling out in recent months stemming from their diverging stories about their role in the WikiLeaks dumps.
According to the indictment, Stone lashed out at Credico in early 2018 and threatened his dog.
"You are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends-run your mouth my lawyers are dying Rip you to shreds," Stone wrote, according to the indictment.
Stone added that he would "take that dog away from you," and threatened to fight him. "I am so ready. Let's get it on. Prepare to die..."
Credico invoked the Fifth Amendment after he was called to testify before Congress.
- Unnamed reporter: Matthew Boyle
During the 2016 election, Boyle was the Washington editor of the far-right website Breitbart. Steve Bannon, Trump's former campaign manager and top adviser, led Breitbart before joining the Trump campaign.
According to the indictment, Boyle communication with Stone about the Wikileaks dumps.
"Assange - what's he got?" Boyle asked Stone on October 3, 2016. "Hope it's good."
"It is," Stone reportedly responded. Boyle then reportedly pressed a top Trump campaign official to contact Stone about the impending WikiLeaks dump, telling the person, "clearly he knows what Assange has."
That top Trump campaign official - referred to several times throughout the indictment - is Bannon, according to a November New York Times report.
Sonam Sheth contributed to this report.