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Stone Trial Testimony Ends With Talk of Outreach to Kushner

Associated Press

   Testimony in the colorful trial of Roger Stone -- featuring talk of
   dognapping and Godfather references -- wrapped up Tuesday with a top
   Trump campaign official telling jurors that Stone tried to contact
   Jared Kushner to "debrief" him about hacked emails damaging to Hillary
   Clinton's presidential campaign.

   While Stone's trial in Washington didn't produce the bombshells about
   President Donald Trump that some expected, the testimony over the last
   week reinforced that those at the highest ranks of the Trump campaign
   were eager to gather information about WikiLeaks' plan to release the
   damaging emails and saw Stone -- who had repeatedly inferred he had
   inside information about those plans -- as the best person to gather
   that intelligence.

   Stone, a longtime Trump friend and ally, is charged with witness
   tampering and lying to Congress about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks
   about the damaging material during the 2016 presidential campaign.

   Stone, who has denied wrongdoing, did not testify. His attorneys rested
   after playing a tape of his congressional testimony. Closing arguments
   are scheduled for Wednesday.

   Text messages, emails

   Throughout the trial, prosecutors used Stone's own text messages and
   emails -- some of which appeared to contradict his congressional
   testimony -- to lay out their case that he lied to Congress and
   threatened a witness.

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