So how come Cox didn't mention Israeli collusion? I heard details about this
on one of my podcasts. Israel was actively engaged in helping Trump and has
been supportive of the Republican party here for several years.
Miriam
Redacted FBI Document Hints at Israeli Efforts to Help Trump in 2016
Campaign
By The Times of Israel and Associated Press
08 May 20
Affidavit quotes Trump confidant Roger Stone being told by a Jerusalem
contact: 'He is going to be defeated unless we intervene. We have critical
intell. The key is in your hands!'
Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump who was
convicted last year in Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between
Russia and the Trump campaign, was in contact with one or more apparently
well-connected Israelis at the height of the 2016 US presidential campaign,
one of whom warned Stone that Trump was "going to be defeated unless we
intervene" and promised "we have critical intell[sic]."
The exchange between Stone and this Jerusalem-based contact appears in FBI
documents made public on Tuesday. The documents - FBI affidavits submitted
to obtain search warrants in the criminal investigation into Stone - were
released following a court case brought by The Associated Press and other
media organizations.
A longtime adviser to Trump, Stone officially worked on the 2016
presidential campaign until August 2015, when he said he left and Trump said
he was fired. However he continued to communicate with the campaign,
according to Mueller's investigation.
The FBI material, which is heavily redacted, includes one explicit reference
to Israel and one to Jerusalem, and a series of references to a minister, a
cabinet minister, a "minister without portfolio in the cabinet dealing with
issues concerning defense and foreign affairs," the PM, and the Prime
Minister. In all these references the names and countries of the minister
and prime minister are redacted.
Benjamin Netanyahu was Israel's prime minister in 2016, and the Israeli
government included a minister without portfolio, Tzachi Hanegbi, appointed
in May with responsibility for defense and foreign affairs. One reference to
the unnamed PM in the material reads as follows: "On or about June 28, 2016,
[NAME REDACTED] messaged STONE, "RETURNING TO DC AFTER URGENT CONSULTATIONS
WITH PM IN ROME.MUST MEET WITH YOU WED. EVE AND WITH DJ TRUMP THURSDAY IN
NYC." Netanyahu made a state visit to Italy at the end of June 2016.
The explicit reference to Israel appears early in the text of a May 2018
affidavit by an FBI agent in support of an application for a search warrant,
and relates to communication between Stone and Jerome Corsi, an American
author, commentator and conspiracy theorist. "On August 20, 2016, CORSI told
STONE that they needed to meet with [NAME REDACTED] to determine "what if
anything Israel plans to do in Oct," the affidavit states.
The explicit reference to Jerusalem appears later in the same document, in
the context of communication between Stone and his unnamed contact in the
Israeli capital. "On or about August 12, 2016, [NAME REDACTED] messaged
STONE, "Roger, hello from Jerusalem. Any progress? He is going to be
defeated unless we intervene. We have critical intell. The key is in your
hands! Back in the US next week. How is your Pneumonia? Thank you. STONE
replied, "I am well. Matters complicated. Pondering. R" The "he" is an
apparent reference to Trump.
The redacted material features numerous references to an "October surprise,"
apparently relating to a document dump by Wikileaks' Julian Assange,
intended to harm Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and salvage
Trump's.
Referring to the Israeli mentions in a report on the documents late Tuesday,
the US website Politico noted: "The newly revealed messages often raise more
questions than answers. They show Stone in touch with seemingly high-ranking
Israeli officials attempting to arrange meetings with Trump during the heat
of the 2016 campaign."
The newly released documents reveal the extent of communications between
Stone and Assange, whose anti-secrecy website published Democratic emails
hacked by Russians during the 2016 presidential election, and underscore
efforts by Trump allies to gain insight about the release of information
they expected would embarrass Democratic opponent Clinton.
They were made public as Stone, convicted last year in Mueller's
investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, awaits a date
to surrender to a federal prison system that has grappled with outbreaks of
the coronavirus.
In a June 2017 Twitter direct message cited in the records, Stone reassured
Assange that the issue was "still nonsense" and said "as a journalist it
doesn't matter where you get information only that it is accurate and
authentic."
He cited as an example the 1971 Supreme Court ruling that facilitated the
publishing by newspapers of the Pentagon Papers, classified government
documents about the Vietnam War.
"If the US government moves on you I will bring down the entire house of
cards," Stone wrote, according to a transcript of the message cited in the
search warrant affidavit. "With the trumped-up sexual assault charges
dropped I don't know of any crime you need to be pardoned for - best
regards. R."
Stone was likely referring to a sexual assault investigation dropped by
Swedish authorities. Assange, who at the time was holed up in the Ecuadorian
Embassy in London, was charged last year with a series of crimes by the US
Justice Department, including Espionage Act violations for allegedly
directing former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the
largest compromises of classified information in US history.
According to the documents, Assange, who is imprisoned in London and is
fighting his extradition to the United States, responded to Stone's 2017
Twitter message by saying: "Between CIA and DoJ they're doing quite a lot.
On the DoJ side that's coming most strongly from those obsessed with taking
down Trump trying to squeeze us into a deal."
Stone replied that he was doing everything possible to "address the issues
at the highest level of Government."
The records illustrate the Trump campaign's curiosity about what information
WikiLeaks was going to make public. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon
told Mueller's team under questioning that he had asked Stone about
WikiLeaks because he had heard that Stone had a channel to Assange, and he
was hoping for more releases of damaging information.
Mueller's investigation identified significant contact during the 2016
campaign between Trump associates and Russians, but did not allege a
criminal conspiracy to tip the outcome of the presidential election.
In a statement Tuesday, Stone acknowledged that the search warrant
affidavits contain private communication, but insisted that they "prove no
crimes."
"I have no trepidation about their release as they confirm there was no
illegal activity and certainly no Russian collusion by me during the 2016
Election," Stone said. "There is, to this day, no evidence that I had or
knew about the source or content of the Wikileaks disclosures prior to their
public release."
Stone was among six associates of Trump charged in Mueller's investigation.
He was convicted last year of lying to House lawmakers, tampering with a
witness and obstructing Congress' own Russia probe.
A judge in February sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison in a case that
exposed fissures inside the Justice Department - the entire trial team quit
the case amid a dispute over the recommended punishment - and between Trump
and Attorney General William Barr, who said the president's tweets about
ongoing cases made his job "impossible."
