Special counsel Robert Mueller has both requested and received the official transcript of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last year. The House Intelligence panel voted Thursday to provide the document, a necessary bureaucratic step toward indicting Stone, whose communications with WikiLeaks have become central to the Russia probe. Mueller's request also marks the first time he has made such an ask of the panel, writes the Washington Post:
The move suggests that the special counsel is moving to finalize his months-long investigation of Stone — a key part of Mueller’s inquiry into whether anyone in President Trump’s orbit coordinated with the Russians.
Mueller’s past indictment of Trump attorney Michael Cohen suggests he might indict Stone for lying to the committee during sworn testimony, and also use the indictment as leverage to turn Stone into a cooperator.
Stone made a now-famous prediction in August 2016 that Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta would soon have his "time in the barrel," just weeks before WikiLeaks started dumping his hacked emails online. Stone has tried to explain away his prescience in subsequent accounts, shifting the blame to other associates like his buddy and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi.
What's unclear at this point is exactly what part of Stone's testimony and involvement in the episode Mueller is homing in on, but we may know soon. Stay tuned.