JULIAN ASSANGE: He doesn't have anything to worry about because there is no back channel. There was never a back channel. I've said it at the time. He's produced no evidence of it. We have complained about it. He's simply trolling the absolute -- you know, they want to be trolled. They don't care. They don't care what the truth is at all. All they want is some little propaganda point that they can use to somehow satisfy their ridiculous fantasies about taking down Trump in relation to Russia. And if Roger Stone is going to help with that, they will give him a massive platform. And that's exactly what they've done. And he's sold a lot more book as a result. I mean, you have to admire the chutzpah and, I suppose, the cleverness at which he's done it. It's, in some sense, admirable. What is not admirable, even though it's really irritated us, is the -- I don't know, the slavish reaction of those -- you know, he just throws a ball, like that, and these mindless mobs of people aligned to the Democrats and the Democratically aligned media in the United States run after it, and eventually over the cliff.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me turn to Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff speaking at a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: On August 8th, Roger Stone, a longtime Trump political adviser and self-proclaimed political dirty trickster, boasts in a speech that he has communicated with Assange and that more documents would be coming, including an October surprise. In the middle of August, he also communicates with the Russian cutout Guccifer 2.0 and authors a Breitbart piece denying Guccifer's links to Russian intelligence. Then, later in August, Stone does something truly remarkable, when he predicts that John Podesta's personal emails will soon be published. "Trust me," he says, "it will soon be Podesta's time in the barrel, hashtag #CrookedHillary." In the weeks that follow, Stone shows a remarkable prescience. "I have total confidence that WikiLeaks and my hero, Julian Assange, will educate the American people soon," he says, hashtag, "#LockHerUp." "Payload coming," he predicts. And two days later, it does. WikiLeaks releases its first batch of Podesta emails. The release of John Podesta's emails would then continue on a daily basis up until the election.
AMY GOODMAN: Your response, Julian Assange, to Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee, ranking Democrat?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Adam Schiff is not a credible person. He's just -- he's just lying in order to, you know, score political points. I had been saying all these things publicly, that we were going to publish information on Hillary Clinton before the election. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: So, this is --
JULIAN ASSANGE: And the media -- the media got it into its stupid head, in fact, that we were going to publish it on October 4th, and that spread around everywhere. And so Roger Stone's comments are responding to that kind of thing. But I don't want to feed into -- I mean, I understand that there's a weird psychological phenomenon happening in the United States presently, but I don't want to feed into it, because I think it's essentially inconsequential, in historical circumstances, unless it leads to a war with Russia. I mean, I don't know what the Trump campaign's connections are with Russia. I can only speak about us. Had no connections with us. We have no connections with Russia. So, I think it's -- and I think if the Russians have done anything else, as far as I can see, it's not of a consequential nature.
AMY GOODMAN: But, Julian, this is the -- this --
JULIAN ASSANGE: So, maybe something will come out, but as far as I can determine -- not that I'm spending a lot of time on it -- as far as I can determine, there's nothing of any scale or significance.
AMY GOODMAN: But this is the anniversary of the email being released, the John Podesta emails. And I think it's important because what's happening in these congressional investigations, Roger Stone is a key figure, whether you think he's credible or not, to have you respond, to make your point. I wanted to play Roger Stone --
JULIAN ASSANGE: Yeah, he is brilliantly --
AMY GOODMAN: Let me just play, and you respond to Roger Stone.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Yeah, he is --
AMY GOODMAN: Let me just play two quick clips. August 8th, this is him speaking in Florida.
REPORTER: With regard to the October surprise, what would be your forecast on that, given what Julian Assange has intimated he's going to do?
ROGER STONE: Well, it could be any number of things. I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation. But there's no telling what the October surprise may be.
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