In early January, Roger Stone, the longtime Republican operative and adviser to Donald Trump, transmitted a text sense to an identify stating that he was actively trying a presidential mercy for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange–and felt rosy about his risks. “I am working with others to get JA a rug amnesty, ” Stone wrote, in a January 6 exchange of verse messages obtained by Mother Jones. “It’s very real and very possible. Don’t fuck it up.” Thirty-five minutes later, Stone contributed,” Something very big about to go down .”

The recipient of the contents was Randy Credico, a New York-based comedian and left-leaning political activist whom Stone has identified as his back path to WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign–a claim Credico strongly denies. During such elections, Stone, a political provocateur who got his start working for Richard Nixon’s presidential expedition, started announcements that indicated he had knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to publish emails been stealing from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and other Democrat, and his interactions with WikiLeaks have become an intense focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian election interference. As Mueller’s team zeroes in on Stone, they have examined his push for an Assange pardon–which could be seen as an attempt to interfere with the Russia probe–and have questioned at least one of Stone’s accompanieds about the effort.

” An attempt by Stone to try to help Assange secure a forgivenes could be considered evidence of a plot to hamper right ,” says onetime prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig.

Assange has not been publicly charged against an offence in the United States, though the Justice Department has investigated WikiLeaks over its publication of classified substance and character in liberating emails stolen from Democratic targets by hackers working for Russian ability. Last-place year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions described arresting Assange, who for the last six years has taken refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy to evade criminal charges in Sweden stemming from a desecration allegation, as a “priority.” Justice Department prosecutors have considered charges against Assange since 2010, when WikiLeaks secreted more than a fourth million diplomatic cables.

Credico says Stone frequently discussed his great efforts to win a forgivenes for Assange. At one point, he mentions, Stone claimed he was working with Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News personality and former New Jersey Superior Court judge, on a strategy in which Napolitano would move the relevant recommendations on his establish or immediately to Trump. Napolitano said in a statement that he “categorically denies” working with Stone to secure a acquittal for Assange.

Stone confirmed the mercy attempt but declined to answer specific questions.” I most definitely advocated a indulgence for Assange, ” he said in an email. He also said he had” most certainly pushed my friend Andrew Napolitano” to subsidized an Assange pardon.

It is not clear how far Stone’s effort disappeared, and Credico says he wondered if Stone was being truthful. Stone, he indicates, likewise claimed to have helped persuade Trump to pardon onetime Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, in August 2017. A booster of WikiLeaks and its mysterious commander, Credico says Stone’s text meanings concerning an Assange pardon were part of a barrage of communications the Republican operative sent him the beginning of this year in a bid to convince him not to dispute Stone’s described in Credico as his WikiLeaks go-between.” He was trying to get me not to talk ,” Credico contends.

Stone’s pardon campaigns have reaped scrutiny from Mueller. Sam Nunberg, a former Trump campaign aide who once worked closely with Stone, told Mother Jones that prosecutors asked him during a February interview if Stone” ever discussed amnesties and Assange .” Nunberg said he had not heard Stone discuss such an effort, and prosecutors did not foster the subject during his subsequent witnes before a glorious jury. Credico declined to say if the topic came up when he testified before a splendid jury assembled by Mueller last month.

Former federal prosecutors say Mueller’s interest in Stone’s bid to help Assange may be part of an effort to untangle the relationship between men as well as could factor in a possible effort to expose a criminal conspiracy involving the hacked emails released after WikiLeaks.” If Stone worked with WikiLeaks on the freeing DNC emails, an effort by Stone to try to help Assange secure a pardon could be considered evidence of a scheme to hamper justice ,” says Paul Rosenzweig, a former major attorney to Kenneth Starr on the Whitewater investigation.

In August, Stone developed the notion of excusing Assange in an interview with the Washington Examiner, is recommended that prosecuting him was akin to targeting a columnist. “Even the Obama Justice Department gathered Assange did nothing the New York Times and Washington Post have not done, which is obtain classified information through whistleblowers, confirming its accuracy and producing it, ” Stone said.

Stone has also publicly advised Trump to pardon others ensnared in the Russia probe, including his former business spouse, Paul Manafort, who was found guilty of bank and tax fraud in August and pleaded guilty last-place month to money laundering, illegal lobbying, and other felonies, and Michael Flynn, who admitted lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential modulation. Both Manafort and Flynn are cooperating with the Mueller investigation. When earlier this year Trump pardoned far-right pundit Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty to expedition commerce irreverences in 2014, Stone described it as a ratify that Trump collaborators mired in the Russia scandal could expect same treatment.

“It has to be a signal to Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort and even Robert S. Mueller III: Indict people for crimes that don’t are applied to Russian deceit and this is what could happen, ” Stone told the Washington Post.

The White House referred a matter of Stone’s pushed forward reprieves for Assange and others to Trump’s outside lawyer. One of Trump’s advocates, Jay Sekulow, declined to comment, saying, “We don’t discuss our ongoing conversations with the Office of Special Counsel .”

Stone’s push was just one of several exertions by Assange allies to help him earn a excuse or leniency. Last year, Adam Waldman, a lawyer who likewise labor as a publicist for Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate supposedly closely connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin, approached the Justice Department on Assange’s behalf. Waldman aimed a is being dealt with US lawyers where Assange would get safe channel to the United States to discuss his are projected to exhaust a stolen archive of the documentation WikiLeaks obtained detailing CIA hacking operations. Assange seemed to hope to use the CIA material as a bargaining chip to win a assurance of legal immunity. That struggle fizzled: The Justice Department refused to negotiate and WikiLeaks dumped the CIA documents in March.

Subsequently, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher( R-Calif .), who is known for his pro-Russia judgments, advocated on Assange’s behalf. In August 2017, he encountered for 3 hour with Assange in London. Afterward, Rohrabacher pitched White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on a schedule where Trump would reprieve the WikiLeaks founder in exchange for Assange releasing information that would presumably belied the US intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia had spoofed the Democratic National Committee. Kelly reportedly declined to pass the relevant recommendations on to Trump.

Barry Pollack, a lawyer who represents Assange in the United States, said in an email that “hes not”” to participate in any efforts to obtain a reprieve on[ Assange’s] behalf .” But Pollack said,” A forgivenes for Mr. Assange is warranted. He has been in legal limbo for too long, simply for publicizing candid information .”

Mueller’s examination of the forgivenes push forms part of the special counsel’s broader probe of Stone’s relationship and contacts with WikiLeaks–an investigation that appears to be heating up. The Washington Post recently reported that Credico told Mueller’s stately jury that Stone claimed in September 2016 that a different source was furnishing him with inside information concerning WikiLeaks.( Stone told the Post he was referring merely to secondhand information overtaken to him from a writer .) CNN reported on Monday that Mueller has been looking into whether right-wing scheme theoretician Jerome Corsi behaved as an intermediary between Stone and Assange.

The special counsel’s investigation has countless parties, including Stone, belief that the self-described dirty trickster may be indicted after the midterm ballots. As Stone recently emailed allies while drumming up donations to his legal justification fund,” Robert Mueller is coming for me .”

Read more: motherjones.com