Veteran US Republican consultant Roger Stone was on Friday arrested in a predawn Florida raid, becoming the sixth campaign associate of US President Donald Trump indicted in an investigation into possible collusion with Russia in the 2016 US presidential election.
Stone, a renowned political dirty trickster who has consulted with Trump for four decades, was charged with lying to US Congress and obstruction in relation to his contacts with WikiLeaks, whose publication of embarrassing Russian-hacked communications from former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign in 2016 gave a boost to Trump.
Stone was also charged with witness tampering after he allegedly tried to persuade an associate to also lie to Congress to protect him.
The White House defended the president, saying that the Stone indictment filed by special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the investigation into possible election collusion with Russia in 2016, has no connection to Trump.
“This has nothing to do with the president and certainly nothing to do with the White House,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN.
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow added in a statement that the indictment did not allege Russian collusion by Stone or anyone else.
The dapper 66-year-old was freed on US$250,000 bail by a Fort Lauderdale court where, true to form, his appearance took the form of the political theater he has long been proud of.
Hundreds of reporters thronged him while scores of protesters chanted “lock him up” as he declared his innocence and loyalty to Trump.
“I am falsely accused,” Stone said. “I will plead not guilty to these charges. I will defeat them in court. I believe this is a politically motivated investigation.”
He castigated a heavily armed 29-man SWAT team that arrested him in the dark at his home, saying that “they terrorized my wife, my dogs.”
Stone, who launched his career as a campaign aide to former US president Richard Nixon and has a tattoo on his back of the first US president to resign from office, has spent decades advising various US political campaigns.
His association with Trump dates back to 1979 and he was one of the first to enlist when the billionaire real-estate magnate launched his run for the presidency in 2015.
Stone left the campaign months later, but the indictment filed on Friday shows that he remained in active communication, providing support and information.
The charges arose from Stone’s alleged lies in testimony to the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017 involving his communications during the campaign with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which published material stolen by Russian hackers from the Clinton campaign.
The indictment says that Stone discussed his communications with Assange with “senior officials” of the Trump campaign who wanted him to obtain information about what WikiLeaks had on Clinton and when it would release it.
It says that after WikiLeaks’ July 22, 2016, release of stolen US Democratic Party e-mails, “a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information” WikiLeaks might have on Clinton.
Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said that was a key revelation.
“Our committee will be eager to learn just who directed a senior campaign official to contact Stone about additional damaging information held by WikiLeaks, one of the publishing arms of Russian government hackers,” Schiff said.
Stone’s arrest brought to 34 the number of individuals indicted in Mueller’s sprawling probe into Russian meddling and possible collusion in the 2016 election.
Besides Stone, five others were close to Trump and the campaign: chair Paul Manafort, deputy chair Rick Gates, former US national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos.
However, none has been charged with anything close to conspiracy to collude with Russia, and while the White House remains under pressure from Mueller’s team, it is not known what it might have on the president himself.
Stone’s indictment was long expected, but he has repeatedly echoed Trump’s argument that the investigation is a politicized “witch hunt.”
“The charges relate in no way to Russian collusion or WikiLeaks collaboration,” Stone said on Friday.
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