According to testimony from former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, Roger Stone told him that Wikileaks had plans to release damaging information on Hillary Clinton during the height of the 2016 presidential campaign. As POLITICO points out, Gates’ testimony at Stone’s trial reveals that the Trump campaign was offered help from Wikileaks earlier than previously thought.

Gates says Stone passed him the info two months before Donald Trump was given the GOP nomination.

“Mr. Stone indicated that WikiLeaks would be submitting or dropping information but no information on dates or anything of that nature,” Gates said. Stone is currently on trial for lying to Congress and obstructing the Russia probe.

Stone also reportedly sought out the contact information of Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, presumably to inform him about the impending info dump from Wikileaks.

“It was in a way a gift,” Gates testified, later adding the campaign was “kind of in disbelief.”

“We believed that if information were to come out, there were a number of us that felt that it would give our campaign a leg up,” Gates said.

Gates pleaded guilty in February of last year on charges of conspiracy against the U.S. and making false statements to the FBI.

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Former Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon testified in court Friday that then-candidate Donald Trump’s advisor and long-time friend Roger Stone was the “access point” to Wikileaks, according to The Hill.

“I think it was generally believed that the access point or potential access point to WikiLeaks was Roger Stone,” Bannon told federal prosecutors in the Washington, D.C. courtroom as Stone faces criminal charges. “I was led to believe he had a relationship with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.”

Bannon reportedly also testified that Stone was the only access point and had “detailed information” on Wikileaks. He also reportedly testified that he had heard Stone was involved in the release of the emails, according to Vox Senior politics correspondent Andrew Prokop.

NBC News legal analyst weighs in:

Bannon’s testimony is hurting not only Stone but the entire Trump campaign, IMO.

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) November 8, 2019

Former Special Assistant to the President Fiona Hill, a National Security Council staffer responsible for Russia and Ukraine, testified before Congress that President Donald Trump’s extortion of Ukraine was coordinated by White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

“Ambassador Sondland, in front of the Ukrainians, as I came in, was talking about how he had an agreement with Chief of Staff Mulvaney for a meeting with the Ukrainians if they were going to go forward with investigations,” into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, Hill said, CNN reports, according to the House-released transcript.

Mulvaney, despite a congressional subpoena, refused to testify today.

Hill has worked for the most-recent three presidents.

Related –
Bolton Blasted Trump’s Ukraine Extortion: ‘I Am Not Part of Whatever Drug Deal Rudy and Mulvaney Are Cooking Up’

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