Roger Stone considers co-operating on Russia investigation

Indicted US President confidante Roger Stone said he would consider co-operating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, but insisted the Russia probe will turn up no collusion on behalf of the president, the New York Post reports.

“That’s a question I’ll have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion,” Mr Stone told ABC’s This Week when asked if he’d tell Mr Mueller the truth.

“If there’s wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about, which I know of none but if there is I would certainly testify honestly.”

Mr Stone, 66, a longtime friend and informal political adviser to Mr Trump, said he never discussed Wikileaks or Russia with Mr Trump, so there’s nothing to reveal to Mr Mueller about potential collusion.

“The president is right: there is no Russia collusion,” Mr Stone said.

Mr Stone was taken in custody after an early morning raid on his Florida home Friday and indicted on charges of lying to politicians about his contacts with Wikileaks, witness tampering and obstructing a House Intelligence Committee probe into whether the Mr Trump campaign conspired with Russia.

Mr Stone admitted he did “forget” about his emails and texts related to Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange, but he expects to be “acquitted and vindicated.”

“I will prove in court that any failure of memory on my part was without intent and would be immaterial,” Mr Stone said. “I am human.”

But Mr Stone stood by Wikileaks’ disclosure of damaging Clinton campaign emails and denied the stolen emails were obtained by Russians meddling in the 2016 election.

“It is unproven and it is a claim,” Mr Stone said.

Despite the US intelligence agencies concluding that Russia conspired to interfere in the 2016 election to help Mr Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton by stealing Democratic emails, Mr Stone said it’s merely an “allegation” and intelligence agencies are “politicised.”

“They also told us Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” Mr Stone said.

He stood by his efforts to “hype” the stolen emails because they exposed the “corruption and dirty tricks of the Clinton campaign.”

Mr Stone said he’s speaking to the press to expose “extraordinary” tactics used to arrest him on Friday and once again asked for legal defence help from the public.

The “indictment is thin as p*** on a rock, so I’m prepared to fight for my life,” Mr Stone said.

Mr Stone blasted the “29-member SWAT team” raid on his Fort Lauderdale home and said he would have just turned himself in if asked.

“It’s an expensive show of force to try to depict me as Public Enemy No. 1. The OG,” Mr Stone said. “It’s an attempt to poison the jury pool. These are Gestapo tactics.”

Shortly after his arrest Mr Stone declared he would never “bear false witness against the president.”