Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone indicted by Mueller and arrested in FBI dawn raid on his Florida home

Source: Washington Examiner | January 25, 2019 | David Mark & Kelly Cohen

Political operative Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Trump, was arrested by a dozen armed FBI agents and indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller on seven counts, including making false statements to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice early Friday.

Stone, 66, was arrested in a dawn raid at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the special counsel’s office said he will make an appearance later today at the federal courthouse in the area. A Washington grand jury approved the indictment Thursday.

The 24-page indictment introduced Stone as an official on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign until august 2015, and that he maintained contact with it and publicly supported it through the 2016 election.

Under the indictment, Stone faces seven counts — one for obstruction of proceeding, five for making false statements and one for witness tampering.

The indictment alleged that Stone was told by an unnamed senior Trump campaign official to find out more about what emails WikiLeaks had that would reveal information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Trump campaign directed a senior campaign official to contact Stone after the July 22, 2016 release of emails by WikiLeaks of the Democratic National Committee and other groups. From October 2016 to November 2016, WikiLeaks then began releasing other documents, including more from the DNC and Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.

According to the indictment, the same unnamed official asked Stone about additional releases and “what other damaging information” WikiLeaks had “regarding the Clinton campaign.” Stone communicated with WikiLeaks through a person he described as a “mutual friend,” “go-between” and “intermediary.”

Stone also misled lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee about his efforts to communicate with WikiLeaks and the communications he had with the Trump campaign, thus obstructing the panel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to the indictment.

The five counts of making false statements deal with separate assertions he made to the committee, and the witness tampering count dealt with his attempt to get another target of the investigation not to contradict anything he told the committee.

Stone also allegedly attempted to influence radio host Randy Credico, another witness in Mueller’s investigation who was in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016. Credico is identified as “Person 2 “ in the indictment, which said Stone tried to get Credico to avoid making any statement that contradicted Stone’s comments to the committee.

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