A top confidante and consultant to President Donald Trump admitted on Friday that he was in contact last year with the hackers who are suspected of breaking into the Democratic National Committee's computer and email accounts, though he says the discussions were 'completely innocuous.'

Roger Stone told The Washington Times that he exchanged 'completely innocuous' messages online with the Twitter handle that is believed to be behind the hack of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chief John Podesta.

'It was so perfunctory, brief and banal I had forgotten it,' Stone told the Times on Friday.

Despite his earlier denials, Stone confirmed a report in the online news site The Smoking Gun.

Roger Stone (right), the political operative and close associate of President Donald Trump (left), admitted on Friday that he was in contact with an online persona that hacked into the Democratic National Committee during the election campaign last year

Stone had exchanged private messages with Guccifer 2.0, the online persona that US investigators believe was created by the Russian government. Guccifer 2.0's Twitter avatar is seen above

TSG was the first to report on Wednesday that Stone had exchanged private messages with Guccifer 2.0, the online persona that US investigators believe was created by the Russian government.

Guccifer 2.0 is alleged to have distributed and publicized stolen emails obtained through hacks of DNC computers and Gmail accounts belonging to Clinton staffers, including Podesta.

While Guccifer 2.0 maintained that he was acting on his own, the US intelligence community has concluded with 'high confidence' that it was controlled by Russian military intelligence.

Stone initially said he did not remember ever exchanging private messages with Guccifer 2.0, whom he has referred to in the past as a 'hero.'

Stone came to Guccifer 2.0's defense after he had his Twitter account temporarily suspended following his admission that he hacked into the DNC

The FBI obtained a number of private correspondences between Stone and Guccifer 2.0

Stone had asked Guccifer 2.0 to retweet an article he wrote last year about the 'rigged' presidential election

On June 15 of last year, Guccifer 2.0 published a blog post in which he claimed credit for hacking into DNC computers.

Stone himself penned an article for Breitbart last summer in which he credits Guccifer 2.0 for hacking the DNC, though he denied that Russia had anything to do with it.

The FBI is investigating Stone as well as other former Trump advisers, including Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Michael Flynn, for their alleged contacts with Russian government officials during the presidential campaign.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser last month after it was learned that he misled administration officials about the nature of his phone conversations with the Russian ambassador before Trump officially took office.

Trump last month denied that he or any of his campaign staff members maintained contacts with Russian officials.

The Times obtained the contents of the messages exchanged between Stone and Guccifer 2.0.

In one message dated August 14, Stone wrote that he was 'delighted' that Twitter reinstated Guccifer 2.0's account after a brief suspension.

Two days later, Stone messaged Guccifer 2.0 asking him to retweet a column he had written about the election being 'rigged' against Trump.

'wow. thank u for writing back, and thank u for an article about me!!!' Guccifer 2.0 wrote to Stone in reference to the Breitbart article.

Stone praised Guccifer 2.0 for his hacks of DNC computers, including the Gmail account of John Podesta (left), a senior aide to Hillary Clinton (right)

'do u find anything interesting in the docs i posted?'

On August 17, Guccifer 2.0 wrote to Stone: 'i'm pleased to say that u r great man. please tell me if i can help u anyhow. it would be a great pleasure to me.'

Stone says the exchanges with Guccifer 2.0 were innocuous.

'Even if [Guccifer 2.0] is/was a Russian asset, my brief Aug. 14 correspondence with him on twitter comes AFTER I wrote about his role in the DNC hacks (Aug 5) and AFTER Wikileaks released the DNC material,' Stone wrote to the Times in an email.

'How does one collaborate on a matter after the fact?'

Last week, Stone echoed the president's claims that the FBI's investigation into the president's staff ties with Russia was becoming a 'witch hunt'.

The former adviser during Trump's election campaign also resolutely denied allegations that he had any connection to Russia.

Stone said he had no knowledge that Wikileaks was going to publish hacked Clinton campaign emails during a pivotal time in campaigning, allegedly delivered to the website by Russian intelligence in order to influence the presidential election.

In August 2016, Stone tweeted that Podesta would soon be 'in the barrel.' Days later, WikiLeaks unveiled the hacked emails

Stone's cry of a witch hunt is a direct echo of Trump's defense of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who removed himself from the investigation after it was revealed he had met with a Russian ambassador twice.

Although Stone denies knowing Wikileaks was set to publish the hacked emails, he had tweeted in August 2016 a prediction about the leaked information.

He said that it would 'soon' be 'Podesta's time in the barrel', shortly before the website rolled out the controversial emails.