Grand jury grills Roger Stone associate Randy Credico
'Like sitting on an electric chair': Mueller grand jury grills Roger Stone associate Credico
By JOSH GERSTEIN, JOSH MEYER and KYLE CHENEY
09/07/2018 02:46 PM EDT
Talk show host and liberal activist Randy Credico testified for more than two hours Friday before a grand jury run by special counsel Robert Mueller's office that appears to be zeroing in on former Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Credico emerged from the questioning, describing it as something of an ordeal.
"It was like sitting on an electric chair for a couple of hours," he told POLITICO.
Credico's attorney Martin Stolar said the Mueller team — which is investigating potential links between the Trump campaign and Russia — seemed firmly focused on Stone, a longtime informal Trump confidant.
"The subject matter of the questions was primarily his relationship with Roger Stone," Stolar said. "The majority of the questioning had to do with Roger Stone."
Mueller's team is interested in Stone because of his outreach to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, whose organization released emails during the 2016 presidential campaign that U.S. intelligence officials say Russian hackers stole from the personal account of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Credico is a devoted advocate for Assange, and Stone's contacts with Credico have led to speculation that Credico served as an intermediary of sorts between Assange and Stone.
Asked how much of the questioning Friday was about Assange, Credico said: "Very little."
Stolar then cut him off: "No, don't. ... The specific questions we're not going to get into."
Credico said he remains a passionate supporter of Assange, but views the Mueller probe as distinct from the U.S. government's inquiries into Assange and WikiLeaks, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dubbed a "hostile intelligence service" while leading the CIA.
"This is a separate effort," Credico said. "I can go back and do what I was doing before, hopefully, and that is advocating for the release and the freedom of Julian Assange, who is a very close friend of mine. ... It's time to circle the wagons rather than the firing squad around Julian Assange."
Credico's appearance at the courthouse had surreal elements, with the grand jury witness spontaneously doing impressions for reporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders and late President Ronald Reagan. Credico was accompanied by his miniature dog, Bianca, who entered the courthouse in a pet carrier and joined the liberal activist and avowed Sanders supporter in the grand jury room.
Credico said he would not have appeared if Mueller's team had not agreed to accommodate the dog.
"She guided me through," he said. "She's very spoiled. ... I want to thank them for being dog lovers. There's a lot of hoops I had to jump through to get her down here, but I couldn't have done it without her."
The bulk of the questioning Friday was conducted by Mueller prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, but two other prosecutors were present, Stolar said. He declined to identify the other prosecutors. The grand jurors also took an active part in the questioning, Credico said.
"I was looking at the prosecutors. I was looking at the jury sometimes. Again — pretty heavy in there for me," he said.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...credico-811127
