Roger Stone, a longtime Republican political consultant and confidant to President Donald Trump, was arrested on Friday in connection to the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
The seven-count indictment charges Stone with lying to Congress and obstructing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Stone has long attracted investigators’ attention, but this was the first time he was charged in the probe.
Stone’s relationship with Trump dates back over 30 years, according to Stone’s personal website. The website claimed that Stone urged Trump to run for president “as early as 1988 and again in 2000.”
When Trump finally decided to run in 2016, Stone was one of Trump's earliest political advisers. He briefly served on Trump's campaign, but he was pushed out amid infighting with then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Stone continued communicating with Trump on occasion and stayed plugged into the circle of advisers — both formal and informal — who worked with and around Trump.
Stone was especially close with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman who was found guilty of tax and bank fraud and witness-tampering in Mueller’s investigation last year. Stone and Manafort co-founded a political lobbying firm in the 1980’s. Their firm lobbied on behalf of Trump’s casino business in the 90’s.
Well-known for his political antics and hard ball tactics, Stone has reveled in being a Washington wheeler-dealer dating back to the Nixon administration. He campaigned for Nixon’s reelection in 1972 and still holds the former president in high regard – he has a tattoo of Nixon on his back and a room full of Nixon posters in his Florida home. He also worked for Ronald Reagan’s campaign.
Stone lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. CNN aired video on Friday of the FBI's raid of his home, showing agents in body armor using large weapons and night-vision equipment, running up to the home and banging repeatedly on the door.
Friday’s indictment provides the most detail to date about how Trump campaign associates in the summer of 2016 were actively seeking to politically benefit from the release of hacked material damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign. It alleges that unnamed senior Trump campaign officials contacted Stone to ask when stolen emails relating to Clinton might be disclosed.
The indictment does not charge Stone with conspiring with WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website that published the emails, 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.
The indictment had been expected. Stone has said for months he was prepared to be charged, though he has denied any wrongdoing. A grand jury for months had heard from witnesses connected to Stone. And the intelligence committee last year voted to release a transcript of Stone's testimony to Mueller as a precursor to an indictment.
Attorney Grant Smith, who represents Stone, did not return a phone message seeking comment Friday.
Contributing: TEGNA Staff
