Former Trump advisor Roger Stone, who has been under scrutiny by Special Counsel Robert Mueller over his alleged contacts with Wikileaks, has been arrested In Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. on a seven-count indictment: One count of obstruction, five counts of making false statements and one count of witness tampering.
The arrest – which like many of Mueller’s high profile arrests, occurred early on a Friday – isn’t exactly a surprise: Stone has long said he expected to be indicted by a grand jury convened by Mueller.
As reporters comb through the Stone indictment, one twitter user pointed out that Mueller had determined that Stone had been “contacted by senior campaign officials to inquire about future releases” of information stolen by Wikileaks from the DNC.
Stone will make an initial appearance later Friday at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. Late last year, Trump famously tweeted a congratulatory message to Stone after the advisor said he would never testify against the president – something that is likely being scrutinized by investigators. The indictment, which was under seal until Stone was taken into custody, was handed down by the jury on Thursday.
In a summary tweeted by WaPo’s Aaron Blake, Stone was busted for lying about the nature of his contacts with his “intermediary” to Wikileaks (he had two intermediaries previously reported to be journalists Randy Credico and Jerome Corsi) and for lying about his communications with senior campaign officials and Wikileaks about the latter’s upcoming releases of stolen emails. Stone raised eyebrows during the campaign for “predicting” the release of emails embarrassing to the Clinton campaign.
The indictment also alleges that Stone requested specific Clinton-related information from Wikileaks.
He also allegedly asked a witness appearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to pull a “Frank Pentangeli”, a reference to a famous scene in the Godfather II when a government witness pretends not to know anything about Michael Corleone’s criminal activities during a Congressional hearing.
Stone served as an official advisor to the Trump campaign shortly after its launch in 2015. He has publicly acknowledged exchanging messages with a hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 that the government has sought to portray as a front for Russian intelligence, and Stone once boasted about his contacts with Wikileaks, even calling its founder, Julian Assange, “my hero.”
Meanwhile, NBC News reported that roughly a dozen associates of Stone have been summoned to appear before Mueller’s grand jury.
Stone will appear in federal court at 11 am ET.
