Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, will testify on July 24 in a closed hearing with the House Intelligence Committee as part of the panel’s Russia investigation, Politico and CNN reported Tuesday night.
Stone’s testimony will follow a closed session the House Intelligence Committee had with Hillary Clinton adviser John Podesta on Tuesday.
“I am confident that Podesta most likely repeated his lie that I knew in advance about the hacking of his email, and am anxious to rebut this falsehood,” Stone said in a statement to CNN. “I am still unhappy that my testimony will not be in public, but believe it is more important to resolve the question of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — which I believe was nonexistent.”
Robert Buschel, Stone’s attorney, told Politico that Stone asked for a public hearing but that the committee said they are “done with public” hearings.
“We tried really hard,” Buschel told Politico.
Stone communicated with Guccifer 2.o, a hacker who released DNC emails and who U.S. officials believe is associated with the Russian government, during the 2016 campaign. However, Stone has said that the interaction was “benign” and has insisted that he did not communicate with Russian officials during the campaign.
