Roger Stone, the controversial figure and former aide to President Donald Trump, told Vero News Thursday that if indicted, he expected pressure to be put on him to testify against the president.
Stone, however, said he will not do that.
“If they want to bring some bogus charge against me, I will fight it to the bitter end,” said Stone, who remains under federal investigation regarding his possible involvement with Russian intelligence operatives hacking emails during the 2016 presidential election. “I know what I have and have not done.
Stone told a Vero Beach audience late Thursday he had no advanced knowledge of the emails hacked from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.
Stone, who could soon face an indictment in the Special Counsel investigation headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller, told Vero News a prosecutor can frame anyone they want, and could” indict a ham sandwich.”
“I’m not interested in being (Robert) Mueller’s lunch,” Stone said. Stone said he thinks he was targeted because he is a long-time friend of Trump and because he helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
Stone, a seasoned Republican strategist who has worked with presidents from Richard Nixon to Trump, has been under investigation for two and a half years for his possible connection to the hacked emails. Many of the emails were made public by WikiLeaks, an online information gathering group that released thousands of once private or secret government documents.
Stone said the investigation is “bull(expletive)” and a “witch hunt.”
“I can assure you there is no evidence of Russian collusion or WikiLeaks collaboration on my part,” Stone said to the audience of more than 100 people about 7 p.m. Thursday at a Republican Club of Indian River County monthly meeting at Grand Harbor Country Club. “All my emails, phone calls and texts since June 2016 have been reviewed by the government.”
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Stone said the investigation has been debilitating and tiring for him. The political consultant, who has a small tattoo of Nixon on his back, quoted the late former president, saying ‘a man is not finished when he is defeated, he is only finished when he quits.’
“I will never be pressured into bearing false witness against the president, as others have done,” Stone said.