During a CNN interview on Monday, longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone attempted to downplay the notion that a tweet he posted in August 2016 about how it would soon be “Podesta’s time in the barrel” indicated he had foreknowledge that emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman would be published by WikiLeaks.
“As far as John Podesta is concerned, my tweet says, ‘the Podestas,’ ‘the Podestas’ — not apostrophe S, meaning John and Tony, referring to the [brothers],” Stone said.
“Is that true? I thought it was apostrophe S,” CNN’s Chris Cuomo replied.
“No,” Stone insisted.
Then Cuomo displayed an image of the tweet Stone was reading.
“There is an apostophe S,” Cuomo notes.
It was a tweet Stone has been asked about dozens of times over the last two years.
Stone was lying. And he doesn’t skip a beat.
The ease with which Stone lied about his own tweet raises questions about his credibility more broadly. During another part of the interview, Stone claimed that he “is not involved in any collusion, coordination, or conspiracy with the Russians, or anyone else, and there’s no evidence to the contrary.” But during the campaign, Stone claimed to be in direct contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose site has been publicly accused by the U.S. intelligence community of laundering emails stolen from Democratic targets by Russian hackers for publication.
Stone refused to answer questions about his contacts with WikiLeaks during his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last fall.
Stone’s August 21, 2016 tweet about “the Podesta’s” wasn’t the only time he indicated he had foreknowledge that WikiLeaks was about to publish stolen emails. On October 7, 2016, Stone tweeted, “Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.”
Less than a week later, WikiLeaks published the first tranche of Podesta emails. Stone wasn’t asked about that tweet during his CNN interview.