Mueller indicts Trump campaign adviser Stone

WASHINGTON—Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office on Friday charged Roger Stone, an informal political adviser to President Donald Trump, with lying to Congress and attempting to obstruct the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Stone was indicted on seven counts: one for witness tampering, one for obstruction of justice, and five for making false statements. FBI agents arrested him before dawn Friday at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He is expected to appear in federal court later in the day. After encouraging Trump to run for president, Stone briefly served on the 2016 campaign but was pushed out due to disagreements with other members of the Trump team.

The indictment focuses on Stone’s attempts during the campaign to discover when “Organization 1”, believed to be WikiLeaks, would release emails that Russian hackers stole from the Democratic National Committee. By June 2016, according to the indictment, Stone had told unnamed senior Trump campaign officials that WikiLeaks had documents potentially damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He would go on to say he had close contact with an “intermediary” close to the organization. After WikiLeaks released some of the documents on July 22, 2016, an unnamed senior Trump official contacted Stone about “what other damaging information” the organization might have and whether it was related to the Clinton campaign, according to court documents. The indictment does not accuse Stone of conspiring with WikiLeaks or with Russians. It does say he lied to Congress about his contact with WikiLeaks and tried to persuade another witness, “Person 2,” either not to talk to the House Intelligence Committee or to lie during testimony. Person 2 is believed to be New York radio host Randy Credico.

Stone has denied any wrongdoing and previously said he had no advance knowledge of the contents of the emails in WikiLeaks’ possession or when they’d be released.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN on Friday that the charges “don’t have anything to do with the president.”