The biggest story following the 2016 presidential election was finding out that Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee (dnc) with the goal of electing Donald Trump. While the White House continues to deny any wrongdoing, one confidante to the president appears to be close to the situation.

Trump trouble

Throughout the entire election season, speculation continued to grow that raised questions about what relationship Donald Trump had with the Russian government.

From the start of his campaign, the former host of "The Apprentice" didn't pull any punches, and was quick to lash out against his political opponents, celebrities, and even many foreign leaders. However, Trump never said a bad word about Russian President Vladimir Putin, and often went as far as to praise him. In the months leading up to Election Day, Trump refused to release his tax returns, adding more questions about a potential financial tie to the Kremlin. As new information trickles out about members of his team communicating with Russian officials, Trump still denies the allegations. As reported by Mediaite on March 9, one of Trump's closest allies, and foreign campaign adviser, spoke to the person responsible for hacking into the DNC.

Citing The Smoking Gun, Mediaite reports that former campaign adviser Roger Stone spoke directly to the Russian hacker who broke into the DNC. "The contact between Roger Stone, the Trump associate, and the Russian influence operation came via private messages exchanged on Twitter," the source points out. Stone was in contact with an online handle known as "Guccifer 2.0," which the United States government believes "was created by Russian government officials to distribute and publicize material stolen during hacks of the DNC."

When responding to the allegations, Roger Stone said he speak to someone with the "Guccifer 2.0" name, but thought all the messages were public. This isn't the first time that Stone has been linked to hackers, as he once claimed on Twitter to have a "back channel" to Wikileaks via Julian Assange, but has since deleted the tweet in question.

Moving forward

While his former aides might have been in contact with Russian officials and hackers, Donald Trump is still pushing back at reports that his current advisers are linked to the Kremlin. In an attempt to deflect from the story, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wiretapping his office at Trump Tower. Trump has not provided any evidence to back up his claim, and Obama denied the allegations in a statement released over the weekend.