Hollis Johnson
Trump ally and campaign advisor Roger Stone has become a prominent figure in the Mueller probe.
- Special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 US election is zeroing in on Roger Stone, one of President Donald Trump's longtime allies.
- One of Stone's associates will testify before a grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday.
- In all, seven of Stone's current and former associates have been called for questioning as part of the Mueller probe.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 US election is zeroing in on Roger Stone, a longtime ally to President Donald Trump, and one of Stone's associates is set to testify before a grand jury on Friday.
Stone, an informal advisor to the Trump campaign, is being scrutinized by the Mueller probe over his contacts accused of illegally interfering in the 2016 presidential election with the intent of swaying it in favor of Trump.
During the 2016 election, Stone allegedly communicated with Guccifer 2.0, an online persona whom Stone painted as a lone hacker, but was later revealed to be a Russian security officer when Mueller indicted 12 Russian operatives for the hacking of Hillary Clinton's campaign in July 2018.
Stone also maintained contacts with Wikileaks, the radical open-source group that the US intelligence community has accused of acting as a "hostile non-state actor" in collaborating with Russia to disseminate the hacked emails in order to bias the American electorate against Clinton.
As one example, Stone repeatedly referenced alleged wrongdoing by Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta before Wikileaks released a trove of hacked emails belonging to Podesta. He has consistently denied being given prior knowledge of the release by Wikileaks.
Stone has repeatedly claimed that the investigation of him and the questioning of his aides amounts to politically-motivated witch hunt - and he says he won't be surprised if he ends up getting indicted himself.
Along with the associates set to testify on Friday, others have already appeared before a grand jury, and still others have not yet been questioned.
Here are all seven of Stone's associates who have been called for questioning: