Heavily armed FBI agents arrested Roger Stone at his Fort Lauderdale home early Friday morning as the former Trump campaign official was charged in a seven-count indictment in Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller’s investigation. The investigation is probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.
A seven-count indictment charges Stone in connection to his communication with WikiLeaks. Video obtained by CNN shows FBI agents pound on Stone’s front door and announce themselves in the dark.
“FBI, open the door,” the agents are heard saying. After a second pounding on the door, the agents say that they have a warrant.
“Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?” President Donald Trump tweeted Friday morning, referring to Stone’s arrest.
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Stone worked on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and maintained regular contact with the campaign through the 2016 election, the indictment says. Stone spoke to senior Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks, which is referred to in the indictment as “Organization 1,” and what information it may have on Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, that would be damaging to Clinton, according to the indictment.
The indictment says Stone took steps to obstruct investigations into Russian interference — which included investigating Stone’s claims of communicating with WikiLeaks — started by Congress and the FBI. Stone made multiple false statements to the House Select Committee on Intelligence and attempted to persuade a witness to provide false testimony to and withhold information from the investigations, the indictment says.
The indictment does not charge Stone with conspiring with WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website that published stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, or with the Russian officers Mueller says hacked them. Instead, it accuses him of witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to WikiLeaks’ release. Some of those false statements were made to the House intelligence committee, according to the indictment.
Stone’s attorney, Grant Smith, said in a statement that “they found no Russian collusion or they would have charged him with it.”
“Roger Stone is vindicated by the fact there was no Russian collusion,” he said.
Smith also said that Stone didn’t receive any materials from WikiLeaks ahead of their public release, and attributed Stone’s misstatements to forgetfulness and said they were”immaterial.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said hours after the pre-dawn raid at Stne’s Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home that Stone’s arrest has nothing to do with the president.
Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this report.
This report will be updated.
Photo by Jose Luis Magana, File/Associated Press