Senators Ask Trump Adviser to Preserve Any Russia-Related Documents

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Roger J. Stone Jr., an informal adviser to President Trump, has been asked by the Senate Intelligence Committee to preserve any records he may have in connection to a broader inquiry into Russian attempts to interfere with United States elections.

The letter sent to Mr. Stone, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, represents the first public indication of the scope of the committee’s inquiry, and possible connections to Mr. Trump’s campaign.

The Senate committee asked Mr. Stone, who is also under scrutiny from other federal investigators, to “preserve and retain all hard copies and electronically stored information as specified below in furtherance of the committee’s ongoing investigation into Russian actions targeting the 2016 U.S. elections and democratic processes globally.”

Mr. Stone confirmed the existence of the letter, which was dated Feb. 17. However, he said he had received it only on Friday, by email. Mr. Stone has acknowledged trading messages over Twitter with Guccifer 2.0, the online persona that officials believe was actually Russian intelligence officers.

The letter to Mr. Stone was signed by the committee’s chairman, Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and its ranking Democrat, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. Press officers for Mr. Burr and Mr. Warner declined to comment on the letter.

Democrats and some investigators, as well as some Republicans, have been watching Mr. Stone, a Richard M. Nixon acolyte and self-described “dirty trickster,” more closely since he posted on Twitter in August 2016 about John D. Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, whose private emails were hacked and provided to WikiLeaks.

Mr. Stone said on Twitter that Mr. Podesta would soon face his “time in the barrel,” two months before the emails were made public. Mr. Stone maintained that he was alluding to business activities he attributed to Mr. Podesta, not prior knowledge of the hackings.

Mr. Stone said he is eager to provide the committee with information.

“I am anxious to rebut allegations that I had any improper or nefarious contact with any agent of the Russian state based on facts, not misleading and salacious headlines,” he said, adding, “I am willing to appear voluntarily if the committee isn’t looking for the headline of issuing a subpoena.”

Mr. Stone, who has strenuously denied the allegations for months, has retained two lawyers to assist with his response to the inquiry, as well as in the hope of pushing federal investigators to either make their information public or say that no case exists.

“The intelligence agencies pushing this false Russian narrative through a series of illegal leaks have hurt my ability to make a living and are soiling my reputation,” he said. “The government is in possession of no evidence whatsoever that shows that I colluded with the Russian state.”

Mr. Stone has also been critical of the investigation into Mr. Trump’s unproven assertion that President Barack Obama wiretapped his phones during the presidential campaign, even challenging the truthfulness of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director.

Mr. Stone has said any contact he had with Russians represented only surface-level exchanges with no broader import.

In 2016, Mr. Stone said at a public event that he had been in communication with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, and suggested they had a large collection of material to publish on Mrs. Clinton and her husband, Bill, in the weeks before Election Day. Mr. Stone later clarified that it was through an intermediary and, he said, “perfectly legal.”

In February 2016, the Smoking Gun website approached Mr. Stone about private messages exchanged on Twitter with Guccifer 2.0. Mr. Stone, who initially told the site that he did not recall the messages, later sent captured shots of the brief exchange to The Washington Times, describing them as “innocuous.”

He also pointed out that the messages were sent well after the hacked Democratic National Committee emails were made public. He would have “needed a time machine to have colluded,” he said. In an interview this week, CBS News asked Mr. Stone about 16 interactions with Guccifer 2.0, which Mr. Stone told The New York Times included public Twitter posts and private messages, and he maintained that they were all part of “exchanges,” as opposed to separate contacts.

Mr. Stone, who believes his communications were monitored by intelligence officials, based on published reports, maintained that he had “released the only exchanges” with Guccifer 2.0, saying the contacts were so “benign” that he had forgotten about them. He also does not fully accept American intelligence information indicating that Guccifer 2.0 is a front for Russian intelligence officers.

“I had never heard allegations that Guccifer 2.0 was a Russian asset until now, and am not certain it’s correct,” Mr. Stone said. He pointed out that he wrote a piece for Breitbart, a conservative website, on Aug. 5, nine days before the message exchange.

“I’m just an available foil,” he said.