WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Roger Stone, U.S. President Donald Trump’s longtime ally and presidential campaign adviser, was arrested on Friday, charged with obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements, according to a grand jury indictment made public by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office.
Stone has faced scrutiny for his support for Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he implied he had access to information obtained by hackers that could embarrass Democrats, including Trump’s rival for the White House, Hillary Clinton.
A lawyer for Stone did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Stone had previously denied to Reuters that he had engaged in any criminal wrongdoing. WikiLeaks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This has been rumored to be coming down for several months, so Roger and his legal team are ready to fight these charges in court,” Michael Caputo, a longtime Stone associate and former Trump campaign adviser, told Reuters. “They can’t prove collusion or conspiracy because it doesn’t exist, so they’re going after him personally. He will be vindicated.”
Stone, who was indicted on Thursday, faces one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of making false statements and one count of witness tampering, according to the Special Counsel’s Office.
CNN, in video of the arrest, showed a heavily armed FBI team taking Stone away from his home in the dark just before 6 a.m. EST (11 am GMT) on Friday and Stone surrendering without any issue.
According to the indictment, Stone had talked to senior Trump campaign officials about what was called Organization 1, “and information it might have had that would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign.”
Organization 1 matches descriptions of Wikileaks, which is dedicated to publishing secret and classified information provided by anonymous sources.
Stone, 66, was also “contacted by senior Trump campaign officials to inquire about future releases” by “Organization 1,” according to the indictment.