Prosecutors say Roger Stone lied to Congress because 'the truth looked bad for Donald Trump'

Prosecutors say Roger Stone lied to Congress and impeded its investigation into election interference because if he told the truth, it would look "bad" for President Trump.

Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump, has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, witness tampering, and making false statements, and prosecutors allege he lied to Congress while facing questions about his knowledge of WikiLeaks' plans to release stolen emails damaging to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

Prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky said Wednesday that Stone "lied to the House Intelligence Committee because the truth looked bad for the Trump campaign, and the truth looked bad for Donald Trump," The Washington Post reports. Stone allegedly made numerous false statements to Congress, including when he said he never talked to the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks' plans.

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In fact, Zelinsky said that Stone provided regular updates to members of the Trump campaign about WikiLeaks, and he allegedly emailed Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort in August 2016 about how to "save Trump's ass," reports Vox's Andrew Prokop. This email was allegedly sent after Stone had already emailed a friend in London to see if he could get into contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

A day after Stone emailed Manafort about this plan to "save" Trump, he made a prediction on his radio show of a "devastating" WikiLeaks release, notes CNN's Andrew Kaczynski. Stone also allegedly emailed Steve Bannon to say that he knew how Trump could win, but "it ain't pretty," and he allegedly spoke with Trump over the phone the day the DNC said it had been hacked in June 2016. Stone has denied being aware of WikiLeaks' plans.