Brendan McDermid/REUTERS
Trump confidant Roger Stone admitted Friday to engaging in private conversations with Guccifer 2.0, the persona behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, but insisted to The Washington Times that the chats were “innocuous.” Stone provided transcripts of his private messages, showing that on August 14, he told the pseudonymous hacker that he was “delighted” Twitter had reinstated Gufficer 2.0’s Twitter account after it was suspended; and several days later, he and the hacker exchanged praise for each other. “i’m pleased to say that u r great man,” Guccifer 2.0 wrote in an August 17 message. “please tell me if i can help u anyhow. it would be a great pleasure to me.” The Smoking Gun reported earlier this week that U.S. authorities had obtained private messages between Stone and the hacker—further calling into question the possible ties between Trump’s campaign surrogates and Russian officials and operatives. But Stone insisted the messages were “completely innocuous and perfunctory.”