Former FBI director Robert Mueller and his team spent investigating potential links between President Donald Trump and Russian election meddling. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM. Former FBI director Robert Mueller and his team spent almost two years investigating potential links between President Donald Trump and Russian election meddling. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM.

Almost two years after special counsel Robert S. Mueller III took his first look at Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to President Donald J. Trump's campaign, his findings have become public fodder.

There's little mention of Fort Lauderdale figure Roger J. Stone Jr., who served as Trump's political adviser and longtime ally, but what few mentions endured linked him to two mysterious Russian citizens with Florida ties.

The U.S. Department of Justice released the report Thursday morning, revealing numerous links between the Trump campaign and people connected to the Russian government, but finding no collusion or conspiracy. The DOJ blacked out certain information in the report, including classified material, secret grand jury testimony or information that could hinder related investigations.

Some of the heaviest redactions centered around connections to WikiLeaks, with entire pages shielded from view. After Stone made statements about WikiLeaks publishing emails hacked from the Democratic Party during the 2016 election, questions swirled about whether he knew about it in advance.

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM. Former Trump adviser Roger Stone. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM.

In January, Stone became the latest of the president's associates to be indicted, facing five counts of false statements, one count of obstruction of an official proceeding and one count of witness tampering.

Stone denied having any prior knowledge of the email hack and said anything he did know came from a middleman — radio host Randy Credico. But Mueller had serious doubts about that story, claiming Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and tried to get Credico, a witness, to go along with his version of events.

Stone pleaded not guilty to all charges and has asked to see a complete copy of Mueller's report as part of the discovery in his case — set for a status conference April 30.

Stone is represented by Fort Lauderdale-based attorneys Grant Smith of StrategySmith, Robert Buschel of Buschel & Gibbons, and Bruce Rogow and Tara Campion. He's also retained a Washington, D.C.-based attorney, L. Peter Farkas of Halloran Farkas + Kittila.

“We are looking forward to seeing the redacted portion of the report to fill the hole,” Rogow said. “I think that the Department of Justice recognizes the need to give us discoverable material, and so that would be discoverable for our defense.”

There's always a Florida connection

Mueller's report did link Stone to Florida-based Russian citizen Henry Oknyansky, who goes by Henry Greenberg, and his Ukrainian associate Alexei Rasin, involved in Florida real estate. This confirms prior reports that they met with Stone in 2016 and claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Trump's opponent in the presidential race.

The special counsel found Trump's campaign communications official Michael Caputo arranged the meeting, where Rasin offered to sell Stone alleged evidence of money laundering against Clinton. Stone said no, telling him Trump would not pay for opposition research.

Mueller's team said it failed to find the information the Russians offered Stone, and found no connection between those communications and Russian interference. Oknyansky and Caputo apparently gave different renditions of events — with Oknyansky placing Caputo there, but Caputo claiming to know nothing about the information on offer.

Rogow was pleased that information wasn't redacted.

“I'm glad they had that because that was somebody who misrepresented himself, and Roger, to his credit, would not be drawn into something like that,” Rogow said. “There's no question that Roger was not involved in any Russian, or anybody posing as Russian, business.”

Key members of Congress will reportedly receive a less-redacted version of the report, including more details about Stone's case.

Click here to read the redacted special counsel report

The release of the redacted report comes after Barr whittled Mueller's 448-page report to a four-page letter outlining the main findings three weeks ago.

The special counsel's 23-month investigation produced 2,300 subpoenas and 500 search warrants, leading to indictments against 34 people.

Trump has taken the report as vindication, tweeting Thursday morning, ”PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” followed by a “Game of Thrones”-style post “for the haters and the radical left Democrats.”

 

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