E-Paper
Donald Trump associate Roger Stone arrested, faces obstruction charge
This is the first major arrest of anyone from Trump’s inner circle. Stone has known Trump for decades and was among those who had been urging him to run for the White House for a long time.
Roger J Stone Jr, a long-time informal adviser to President Donald Trump, was arrested by the FBI Friday morning and charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller with making false statements, witnesses tampering and obstructing official proceedings.
This is the first major arrest of anyone from Trump’s inner circle. Stone has known Trump for decades and was among those who had been urging him to run for the White House for a long time. He was the Trump campaign briefly till late 2015 but had continued to remain in touch with senior officials till much after.
Stone, 66, was arrested by FBI agents in an early morning swoop from his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, parts of which were captured on video and ran on CNN.
Stone has been charged with one count of obstructing an official proceeding, five counts of making false statements and one count of witness tampering, according to an indictment from Mueller’s office unsealed on Friday.
Stone’s lawyers have said he is ready to contest the charges. He was schedule to a make a court appearance later in the day..
The indictments are about Stone’s interactions with WikiLeaks as it had released emails from Democrats National Committee’s head quarters and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, that were hacked by Russians, according to Mueller’s office, and handed over to the anti-secrecy group for release. WikiLeaks has denied it obtained them from Russians.
The hacking was conducted by Russians as part of a plan to influence the 2016 election to damage Hillary Clinton and help Trump win the White House race, according to US authorities. Mueller has handed out a bunch of indictments naming Russian individuals and entities such as GRU, the military intelligence, as among those involved.
Stone had been in touch with WikiLeaks head Julian Assange, who has been staying in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012, through an intermediary and had advance knowledge of the release of the hacked material, which he had communicated to senior official of the Trump campaign.
“During the summer of 2016, Stone spoke to senior Trump Campaign officials about Organization 1 (which is WikiLeaks but has not been named in the court filing) and information it might have had that would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign,” prosecutors said n the indictment. “Stone was contacted by senior Trump Campaign officials to inquire about future releases by Organization 1.”
The indictment cites several communications between Stone and WikiLeaks through an intermediary, a New York city radio host, about the schedule of the document dumps and subject matter.
“Please ask [the head of Organization 1] for any State (stte department) or HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton) e-mail from August 10 to August 30—particularly on August 20, 2011 that mention [the subject of the article] or confirm this narrative,” Stone wrote in an email to the intermediary, identified in the indictment as “Person 2”, in September 2016.
When asked about these contacts, any material evidence in his possession of them by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017 he denied flatly having advance knowledge and having documentary evidence of his contacts, such as letters, emails and phone texts.
Mueller’s indictment also detail Stone’s attempt to persuade the intermediary — a witness — to refuse to depose and when forced invoke his Fifth Amendment right to not implicate himself. Stone “knowingly and intentionally corruptly persuaded and attempted to corruptly persuade another person, to wit: Person 2, with intent to influence, delay, and prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding”.
