As Russia probe looms, Roger Stone touts relationship to WikiLeaks

Over the weekend, the longtime Trump confidant tweeted that he had a “back channel” to WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign — only to later delete it.
“[N]ever denied perfectly legal back channel to Assange who indeed had the goods on #CrookedHillary,” Stone tweeted late Saturday night. The post was gone after almost 40 minutes.
 .. Over the weekend, the longtime Trump confidant tweeted that he had a “back channel” to WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign — only to later delete it.
“[N]ever denied perfectly legal back channel to Assange who indeed had the goods on #CrookedHillary,” Stone tweeted late Saturday night. The post was gone after almost 40 minutes.
.. WikiLeaks took to Twitter, saying it was unaware of communications between Stone and the organization or Assange.
Stone said on Twitter more than a week later that it would soon be Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s “time in the barrel.”
The message proved prescient. In early October, WikiLeaks began posting Podesta’s emails online for public consumption.
.. As Stone regularly touted WikiLeaks’ releases, the self-styled radical transparency organization once again said it had never communicated with Stone.
 .. Stone told CBS4 Miami at the time that his tweet was not meant to reflect upcoming WikiLeaks disclosures and said he had communicated with Assange indirectly.
“I do have a back-channel communication with Assange because we have a good mutual friend,” he said in the October interview.