NBC: Mueller Investigating Whether Trump Knew About Hacked Emails

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether President Donald Trump knew about the hacked Democratic emails before the breach was public and if he coordinated their release, NBC News reports.

Mueller's investigators have asked more than one witness directly about Trump's knowledge of the emails and whether Trump campaign aides coordinated with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on the timing of those dumps, NBC reports.

Mueller's team also is asking witnesses about GOP operative Roger Stone, a friend of Trump's since 1979. That comes a day after a report that Stone communicated directly with WikiLeaks in October 2016.

"They wanted to see if there was a scheme. Was Stone working on the side for Trump?" one witness told NBC News about questions asked by special counsel investigators.

Further, NBC reports that investigators are interested in the timing of a Stone tweet in August 2016 that said "it would soon be (Clinton campaign chairman John) Podesta's time in the barrel;" Podesta's emails were leaked a few weeks later.

That wasn't the only time Stone professed to know of something coming down the pike from WikiLeaks.

Stone left the Trump campaign in August 2015 and has said he has not been interviewed

WikiLeaks began releasing the stolen Democratic emails in July 2016 and continued doing so right up until the election.

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