Roger Stone, a longtime confidant and former political advisor to President Donald Trump, appeared in federal court Friday on the heels of his indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The appearance in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, came a day after Stone was indicted on seven criminal counts as part of Mueller's ongoing investigation of Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
Before dawn Friday, Stone was arrested by a cadre of FBI agents at his Florida home. He was reportedly then taken to the Broward County courthouse for an 11 a.m. hearing before Judge Lurana Snow.
CNN tweet with video of Stone raid
Stone was charged with five counts of making false statements, one count of obstructing another probe of Russian interference conducted by the House Intelligence Committee, and one count of witness tampering.
The 24-page indictment alleges that Stone had contacted, and had been contacted by, an array of Trump campaign associates about leaking Democratic officials' stolen information on the eve of the 2016 election to sway the contest against Hillary Clinton.
The organization that coordinated the document-dumping campaign is unnamed in the indictment but clearly refers to Julian Assange's WikiLeaks. That whistleblowing site dumped tranches of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign John Podesta that were allegedly hacked by Russian operatives.
Stone has repeatedly denied colluding with Russia. His lawyer, Grant Smith, told NBC News on Friday that if the special counsel had "found any collusion, they would have charged him with it."
Stone's court appearance was set to begin just after his former associate and ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, another target of Mueller's probe, appeared in U.S. court in Washington, D.C.
Manafort's hearing relates to Mueller's allegation that the Republican operative repeatedly lied in breach of his plea deal with the special counsel. Manafort had pleaded guilty to multiple crimes related to his work for pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine.
"This has nothing to do with the president," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of Stone's indictment Friday morning. "The president did nothing wrong. There was no collusion on his part."
Trump's counsel, Jay Sekulow, said: "The indictment today does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or anyone else. Rather, the indictment focuses on alleged false statements Mr. Stone made to Congress."
But the special counsel does implicate multiple top-ranking Trump campaign officials in Stone's charges. CNBC reported Friday that one such person, referred to as a "high-ranking Trump Campaign official" in the indictment, is former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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