© Lynne Sladky / Associated PressRoger Stone
The seven-count indictment alleges Stone misled lawmakers on the committee about his efforts to communicate with WikiLeaks and his contacts with the Trump campaign.
Comment: Wikileaks has responded by saying the indictment only reveals more evidence that Trump's campaign had no "back channel" with WikiLeaks.
It also accuses Stone of attempting to intimidate another witness: radio host Randy Credico, who was in contact with WikiLeaks head Julian Assange in 2016.
Stone appeared Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after a Washington, D.C., grand jury approved the indictment Thursday. He was released on a $250,000 personal surety bond. Stone said Friday that he would be arraigned in D.C. next week.
The Stone indictment marks Mueller's biggest move yet against a Trump associate on grounds related to the release of stolen emails to sabotage Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016. It also reflects a stunning turn for Stone, a GOP operative and prominent Trump cheerleader whose relationship with the president spans nearly 40 years, making him a prime target for investigators to try to turn into a government witness.
After he was released, Stone phoned into conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' show on InfoWars, where he vowed to fight the charges and said that he wouldn't flip on the president.
"There are no circumstance under which I would plead guilty to these charges. There are no circumstances under which I would bear false witness against the president," he said. He pleaded with supporters to donate to his legal defense fund, accusing Mueller and his investigators of "seek[ing] to destroy me" and claiming that because of the accusations against him, he was living paycheck to paycheck.
He said he would "fight for his life" against the charges, which he contended were "bogus" and politically motivated.
"I believed I would be framed by some process charge," he said, declaring that nothing in the indictment proved that there was collusion with Russia or collaboration with WikiLeaks, or that Stone did anything illegal to help Trump get elected.
"I'm being persecuted for being 40-year friend and supporter of his," Stone said.
Mueller's 24-page indictment against Stone is replete with examples of alleged lies he told, some of them rather brazen. It contends that around Stone's late September 2017 testimony before the House committee, he "denied having ever sent or received emails or text messages" from Credico when in fact they'd "exchanged over thirty text messages."
But perhaps the most politically damning and intriguing parts of the indictment are new details about alleged efforts by the Trump campaign and Trump backers to keep abreast of potential new disclosures from WikiLeaks, referred to as "Organization 1" in the document.
"After the July 22, 2016 release of stolen DNC emails by Organization 1, a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact STONE about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton Campaign," the indictment says. "STONE thereafter told the Trump Campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by Organization 1."
The indictment does not identify the senior campaign official nor does it specify who instructed the official to maintain contact with Stone about WikiLeaks. While it's unclear just who that official is - Justice Department policy is not to name individuals in indictments unless they have been charged - some other exchanges with Stone clearly involved Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who became the campaign's chief executive in mid-August 2016.
In one early October email, Stone told Bannon that WikiLeaks would release "a load every week going forward." The message was previously published in the New York Times. An attorney for Bannon declined to comment.
The indictment also says that as the campaign unfolded, Stone was keeping key Trump backers apprised of indications about what WikiLeaks and Assange were up to. "Spoke to my friend in London last night. The payload is still coming," Stone allegedly assured one Trump campaign-linked supporter by email on October 3, 2016, just four days before WikiLeaks dropped its first batch of internal Clinton campaign emails.
Stone then spoke by phone with the same supporter the following day to say that the upcoming release "would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign."
Stone, who is based in South Florida, has long been known for his work in the political "dark arts." He was one of the youngest members of Richard Nixon's infamous 1972 reelection bid, which launched the Watergate scandal. Stone has also been one of the most outspoken advocates to have urged Trump to make the jump from business into presidential politics - starting in 1988 and then again in 2000 and 2012, before Trump finally took the plunge on his way to a White House upset in 2016.
In a combative live interview with CNN on Friday morning, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she was unaware that anyone at the White House got a heads up about Stone's impending arrest. She also distanced the president from Stone's charges while repeatedly declining to answer whether Trump directed an aide to contact Stone about his Wikileaks contacts, saying she hadn't read the indictment.
Trump's personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement, "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."
Stone's witness tampering charge does accuse the operative of attempting to interfere in the FBI's Russia probe.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed that with the indictment, it "seems like we are coming to an end." But Mueller is under no deadline to finish his investigation and his now 20-month-old investigation could extend for several months, if not more, as Stone fights back against the charges in court.
Trump himself weighed in late Friday morning with a familiar refrain. "Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION!" he tweeted.
Stone was greeted by a zoo-like atmosphere when he appeared in court Friday morning. Inside the packed federal courtroom, the famously fashion-conscious political operative, dressed in a navy blue collared shirt, was told he could not travel outside the Southern District of Florida, Eastern District of Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Outside the courthouse, media clustered around the entrance, and protesters sang "Back in the USSR."
Stone, on the phone with Jones, even remarked about the mayhem outside.
"You wouldn't believe the scene I'm looking at outside, there must be 500 to 600 reporters," he said.
Comment: The FBI did the "perp walk" treatment with Roger Stone. But it is incredibly rare for a news organization to accompany law enforcement to the house of the person being arrested. But that's exactly what CNN was able to do in this arrest. Clearly that was part of the "optics" in immediately having Stone look like a criminal. Here is the video:
This has rightly been described as an "orchestrated show" by observers:
"It was an orchestrated show," Jim Jatras said. "How is it that CNN, which is at the forefront of the lynch mob against Trump and his associates, just happens to be at the scene where the FBI is launching a pre-dawn raid?"
In his news conference Friday, Stone quipped about the attention his arrest had received, telling a booing crowd that "as I have always said, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."
Stone incorrectly contended that he was only being charged with lying to Congress. "Any error I made in my testimony would be both immaterial and without intent," he said, though he admitted he hadn't read the indictment. He also slammed the special counsel's office again for his surprise arrest.
"Since I was not contacted prior to the charges today, my lawyers have not talked to the special prosecutors," he said, responding to whether or not he will cooperate with Mueller. "I don't want to address that question, but I have made it clear I will not testify against the president. Because I would have to bear false witness against him."
He added: "I have told the truth. I will continue to tell the truth and I will tell that to a court of law. I am one of his oldest friends."
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Comment: There has been plenty of reaction from across the political spectrum to Stone's arrest. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders stated that despite the media claims otherwise, Trump did nothing wrong: "There was no collusion on his part".
Stone's lawyer, Grant Smith, claims his client is "vindicated" due to the fact that the indictment against him does not mention Russian collusion. Trump's legal counselor Jay Sekulow weighed in: Stone has since said he will plead not guilty and that the charges against him are "politically motivated".
Jim Jatras, a former US Diplomat and GOP Senate policy adviser, told RT: For more, see Top takeaways from the Roger Stone indictment