WASHINGTON — When WikiLeaks published a trove of emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman a month before the 2016 election, it was widely viewed as an attempt to damage her standing, even as WikiLeaks defended the release as an effort to bring greater transparency to American politics.
We have since learned that the emails were originally hacked by Russian intelligence operatives. What is still not clear is how much Trump campaign advisers knew about the hacks at the time — a subject of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III — or the extent of their interactions with far-right figures eager to undermine Mrs. Clinton.
Emails obtained by The New York Times provide new insight into those connections, as well as efforts by Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime informal adviser to President Trump and political operative, to seek funding through the campaign for his projects aimed at hurting Mrs. Clinton. The emails are verbatim, typos and all, save for email addresses deleted to protect the emailers' privacy.
The Players
- Stephen K. Bannon, Trump campaign chairman and co-founder of the far-right Breitbart News, who ran the website until he joined the campaign
- Matthew Boyle, Breitbart's Washington editor
- Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime conservative operative and confidant of President Trump
- Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks
The Context
A month before the election, Mrs. Clinton looked to be cruising to victory. Mr. Trump's surrogates, including Mr. Stone, were trying to come up with ways to attack her to help Mr. Trump gain ground.
Mr. Stone had long claimed both publicly and privately that he had foreknowledge of the information that WikiLeaks planned to release about Mrs. Clinton and her political allies. In early October, Mr. Stone predicted on his Twitter account, which was suspended after a string of expletive-laden tweets, that the documents that Mr. Assange promised to make public would hurt Mrs. Clinton's campaign.
Oct. 2, 2016 @rogerjstonejr: "Wednesday @HillaryClinton is done."
Oct. 3, 2016 @rogerjstonejr: "I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon. #LockHerUp"
The Emails
On the night of Oct. 3, Mr. Boyle emailed Mr. Stone. Mr. Assange had scheduled a news conference for the next day where he would announce he was releasing a new cache of documents. The emails show how closely intertwined Breitbart News and the campaign were and how people in Mr. Bannon's orbit saw Mr. Stone as a direct link to WikiLeaks.
Monday, October 3, 2016
FROM: Matthew Boyle
TO: Roger Stone
EMAIL:
Assange — what's he got? Hope it's good.
—
Thanks,
Matthew Boyle
Washington Political Editor, Breitbart News
http://twitter.com/mboyle1
http://www.breitbart.com/Columnists/matthew-boyle
Mr. Stone had apparently been trying to get in touch with Mr. Bannon to tell him about Mr. Assange's plans. Mr. Boyle, a protégé of Mr. Bannon's, forwarded to him Mr. Stone's email. But Mr. Bannon appeared uninterested in engaging.
Monday, October 3, 2016
FROM: Roger Stone
TO: Matthew Boyle
EMAIL:
It is. I'd tell Bannon but he doesn't call me back.
My book on the TRUMP campaign will be out in Jan.
Many scores will be settled.
R
Monday, October 3, 2016
FROM: Matthew Boyle
TO: Steve Bannon
EMAIL:
You should call Roger. See below. You didn't get from me.
Monday, October 3, 2016
FROM: Steve Bannon
TO: Matthew Boyle
EMAIL:
I've got important stuff to worry about
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
FROM: Matthew Boyle
TO: Steve Bannon
EMAIL:
Well clearly he knows what Assange has. I'd say that's important.
The next morning, Mr. Assange told reporters in Berlin, by teleconference, that he planned to release "significant material" in the coming weeks, including some related to the American presidential election. He said WikiLeaks hoped to publish a trove of documents each week in the coming months. Mr. Assange's comments were reported extensively in the United States.
Mr. Bannon then contacted Mr. Stone directly, asking for insight into Mr. Assange's plan. Notably, Mr. Stone did not tell Mr. Bannon anything that Mr. Assange had not said publicly. He did explain that Mr. Assange was concerned about his security, and he said in an interview that Randy Credico, a New York comedian and activist whom Mr. Stone has identified as his source about WikiLeaks, also gave him that information.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
FROM: Steve Bannon
TO: Roger Stone
EMAIL:
What was that this morning???
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
FROM: Roger Stone
TO: Steve Bannon
EMAIL:
Fear. Serious security concern. He thinks they are going to kill him and the London police are standing done.
However —a load every week going forward.
Roger stone
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
FROM: Steve Bannon
TO: Roger Stone
EMAIL:
He didn't cut deal w/ clintons???
The final email in the exchange is vintage Stone. He demanded that Trump campaign surrogates convey his accusations, made without evidence, about Bill Clinton's having a love child named Danney Williams. And he told Mr. Bannon to have the wealthy Republican donor Rebekah Mercer send money to his political organization — a 501(c)(4) group sometimes called a C-4 — which was structured to keep its donors secret. No evidence has emerged that Mr. Bannon asked Ms. Mercer to send money.
In response to Mr. Bannon's request for insider information into whether Mr. Assange had cut a deal with the Clintons not to release the emails, Mr. Stone said he did not know.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
FROM: Roger Stone
TO: Steve Bannon
EMAIL:
Don't think so BUT his lawyer Fishbein is a big democrat .
I know your surrogates are dumb but try to get them to understand Danney Williams case
chick mangled it on CNN this am
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3819671/M...
He goes public in a big way Monday— Drudge report was a premature leak.
I've raise $150K for the targeted black digital campaign thru a C-4
Tell Rebecca to send us some $
Michael S. Schmidt is a Washington correspondent covering national security and federal investigations. He was part of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 — one for reporting on workplace sexual harassment and the other for coverage of President Trump and his campaign's ties to Russia. @NYTMike
Mark Mazzetti is a Washington investigative correspondent, a job he assumed after covering national security from the Washington bureau for 10 years. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on Donald Trump's advisers and their connections to Russia. @MarkMazzettiNYT
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent. She joined The Times in 2015 as a campaign correspondent and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on Donald Trump's advisers and their connections to Russia. Previously, she worked at Politico, The New York Post and The New York Daily News. @maggieNYT
Sharon LaFraniere is an investigative reporter. She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for national reporting on Donald Trump's connections with Russia. @SharonLNYT
New York Times, January 25, 2019
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January 25, 2019
Post Script. Mr. Mueller is in Washington. Here is hard evidence - of Trump campaign criminality; knowingly trafficking in stolen property. Wikileaks had stolen emails & Stone & Bannon helped him. #TheEndBegins #LockThemUp
