Roger Stone, a political consultant and strategist who worked an President Donald Trump’s campaign and is now an informal adviser to the president, testified Tuesday before the House Intelligence Committee as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
But it was what Stone said of the investigation afterward that made people listen.
Stone denies having any involvement in the Democratic National Committee’s email leak. He also shared some strong words with reporters gathered outside the hearing.
“They make the charges against you in a public forum to maximize coverage for their U.S. Senate campaign or their re-election but then they only allow you to respond behind closed doors and they won’t even allow the release of the transcript. It really puts you at an extraordinarily unfair advantage,” he added.
Stone also argued that House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., smeared GOP strategist Michael Caputo by implying he perjured himself after his hearing before the committee.
“In the case of Michael Caputo, he attended the session, answered all questions truthfully and then Congresswoman Smear, I mean Speier, came back and said he perjured himself,” he said. “I don’t believe that’s true.”
After Caputo’s testimony, Speier told CNN that he “may have actually lied.”
On the subject of Stone’s testimony, Speier was more generous.
“So my takeaway was that he was very responsible, he answers our questions with the exception of one big question – who the in-between confidant was who was able to confirm when Julian Assange was going to release those emails,” Speier told CNN.
Stone has maintained he was not involved in the publication of the emails. He instead believes the DNC emails were leaked, not hacked.
“The science seems to indicate an inside job,” Stone said. “So I don’t know whether the DNC was hacked, I don’t know at all that it was hacked by Russians and now on the basis of this report I tend to believe it was an inside job, meaning the data was downloaded to say a thumb drive and spirited out of the building.”
In a written statement, Stone also argued his campaign practices are legal.
“While some may label me a dirty trickster, the members of this committee could not point to any tactic that is outside the accepted norms of what political strategists and consultants do today. I do not engage in any illegal activities on behalf of my clients or the causes in which I support,” Stone wrote.