FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Roger Stone, a former advisor to President Donald Trump, denied making contact with Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential campaign in an exclusive interview with 7News on Thursday.
Stone is someone who is close to President Donald Trump, but now he is under the microscope. Facing reported ties to Russia, Stone claims the reports are wrong.
In a heated exchange with reporters a week ago, President Trump deflected, but when pressed, he denied his aides spoke with Russian operatives during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“I have nothing to do with Russia,” Trump said. “To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”
However, a New York Times report contradicts that, and one of the people named in that report is Stone.
When asked if he was in contact with any Russian intelligence officials or anyone in Russia, Stone responded, “Absolutely, positively, not.”
Stone lives in a quiet Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, but ever since the bombshell report, he’s been at the center of an international political storm.
The Times reported intercepted phone calls show members of Trump’s campaign had repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials.
“It is a falsehood,” Stone said. “It’s a narrative that I think is designed to discredit and undermine the new president.”
Stone believes his e-mails, texts, and phone calls from his Fort Lauderdale home were recorded using a warrant approved by a secret court.
“I don’t know what they did see, but I can tell you what they didn’t see: any contact from the Russians,” Stone said.
Stone also claims he was poisoned before Christmas, showing 7News several pictures. He also said he had a high fever and rash and had to go to a South Florida hospital.
Stone said he is unsure who would have poisoned him. “I have no idea,” he said. “In my case, the list of suspects would be so long you’d never figure it out.”
Stone is no stranger to controversy or politics, having advised Presidents Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush. He’s had a reputation for down and dirty politics — even being called the “Dirty Trickster.”
When asked why people should believe his story that he had no contact with Russia, Stone responded: “Well, it’s going to be quite provable. Now that the court has a warrant for all my e-mail records and phone records and presumably my text records — it will be completely provable. I’m willing to wait.”
Stone said he still talks to President Trump and that he has met with him twice since the Inauguration — once in Washington D.C., and again at the President’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
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