Roger Stone Meets with Russian National In May 2016

Roger Stone. Image captured by the News Blender

On Sunday, Roger Stone, a political consultant and ally to President Trump, revealed he met alone with a Russian national, Henry Greenberg, who claimed to have “political dirt,” on Hillary Clinton.

The meeting reported first by The Washington Post, happened in May of 2016, at a restaurant in Sunny Isles, Florida.

The meeting was arranged through Michael Caputo, former Trump campaign communications official. Caputo’s business partner, Sergey “George” Petrushin had previously put Caputo in contact with Greenberg.

Stone told the Post, it was a brief meeting in which Greenberg requested $2 million dollars from Donald Trump in exchange for the “political dirt” Greenberg had on Hillary Clinton. Stone says he told Greenberg, before he rejected the offer, “You don’t understand Donald Trump. He doesn’t pay for anything.”

Stone and Caputo in separate interviews with the Post, told the newspaper, that neither disclosed the meeting during testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

The two men now say their memories were jogged when Caputo was presented, in a May 2nd interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, with a text message

The two also tell the Post they now suspect they were, “the targets of a setup by U.S. law enforcement officials hostile to Trump.”

The Post reviewed the documents the two claim show evidence that Greenberg who also used the last name Oknyansky, was a FBI informant.

The documents filed with a CA court, in 2015, includes a declaration page signed by Greenberg using the last name Oknyansky, states that from 2000 until sometime in 2013, he sent information to a FBI agent, the Post notes, the named agent, offered no comment.

The Post spoke to Greenberg who by phone denied Stone’s account of the meeting telling the Post, “This is wrong information,” later in text messages to a Post reporter, Greenberg “changed his story.”

According to the Post, Greenberg told them, while he did meet with Stone, he was not alone, he was with a friend, he would only identify to the Post as Alexei. Alexei, according to Greenberg, was fired from a job at the Clinton Foundation, though Greenberg provided the Post with no evidence that Alexei did work there, and the Clinton Foundation spokesman told the Post that the “group has never employed a man with the first name Alexei.

In a text Greenberg says that Alexei, “was very upset, and he wants to tell his story. He told Mr. Stone what he knew and what he want.”

Greenberg told the Post, he never asked Stone for money.

This meeting between Stone and Greenberg falls in between the meeting with George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser who was told in London that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton and only two weeks before the Trump Tower meeting, that involved Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer.

Both Stone and Caputo through their respective attorneys sent letters on Friday to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) amending their testimony to include the contact with Greenberg. Both have told Nunes they also forwarded the letters to the Inspector General who is investigating the FBI’s use of an informant(s) in regards to the Trump campaign.

As the Post points out “Stone and Caputo’s interactions with Greenberg mean that at least 11 Trump associates or campaign officials have acknowledged interactions with a Russian during the election season or presidential transition.”

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About Tiff 2759 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.