The indictment of Trump adviser Roger Stone provides evidence of collusion between high-ranking Trump campaign officials and WikiLeaks and is dangerous for the US, President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer told DW.
DW: Why is the indictment and arrest of longtime Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone so significant?
Richard Painter: This is direct evidence of collusion between high-ranking officials in the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks to obtain documents stolen by the Russians in the 2016 election. There is other evidence, of course, of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. So this clearly closes the loop and makes clear that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians, with WikiLeaks to obtain damaging emails that have been stolen from Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
While President Trump is not directly implicated in this new indictment, do you think he could be in the future?
Absolutely yes, the president and high-ranking officials in the campaign, including perhaps even, or probably, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr, who were in the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians to talk about incriminating dirt on Hillary that they wanted to get. So this is all starting to come together. This is a very bad situation for President Trump.
View the complete January 26 article on the Deutche Welle website here.