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Roger Stone, a longtime ally of US President Donald Trump, said Thursday that he would plead not guilty for lying to Congress about the release of stolen emails from the Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Stone was arrested in Florida Friday before dawn, prompting Trump to take it again about a "witch hunt" against him.
"I am falsely accused," Stone said in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, saying he was "concerned about prosecutors' political motives."
He also pledged his support for Trump – one of his "oldest friends" – stating: "I have made it clear that I will not be testifying against the president, as I would have to wear a fake testimony against him ".
Stone has been charged with seven counts, including obstruction of prosecution, alteration of witnesses and misrepresentation.
Special advocate Robert Mueller said in court papers that Stone had already read about a WikiLeaks plan to spread the emails, which badysts say could have contributed to the democrat's staggering defeat Hillary Clinton by Trump.
Stone, a seasoned political officer, is one of Trump's closest badociates to be indicted by Mueller, who is studying a risk of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.
"The greatest witch hunt in the history of our country! NO COLLUSION!" Said Trump on Twitter, using his most common insults for the Mueller probe.
The Kremlin has denied being ingested in the 2016 election.
Profane messages
The indictment showed Stone was using a language reminiscent of Mafia leaders – and even quoting a "Godfather" movie – when he called an anonymous partner to FBI investigations "a rat" and "a man". stupid "in a series of secular messages.
Stone was one of Trump's early supporters, whose reputation as an aggressive political actor and self-proclaimed "trickster" dates back to the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, while he was working for Richard Nixon. He has a tattoo of Nixon's face on his back.
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| Rocks political career began with the 1972 Nixon presidential campaign [Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP] |
His lawyer, Grant Smith, told Reuters that Stone was "vigorously" challenging the charges.
"There was no collusion," Smith said. "He forgot to say something to Congress and what it was immaterial."
He briefly appeared in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, wearing blue jeans and a blue polo shirt. A judge released him on bail of $ 250,000 and ordered him to limit his trip to South Florida, New York and Washington.
WikiLeaks, referred to as "Organization 1" in the indictment, did not respond to a request for comment.
Thirty-five people pleaded guilty, were indicted or were swept away in another way in the investigation into Russia, which darkened the two-year-old Trump presidency.
Among them are former Trump badociates, including his lawyer Michael Cohen and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as well as 12 Russian intelligence agents.
Sarah Sanders, press secretary at the White House, said that the indictment against Stone was not related to the president.
"The charges against Mr. Stone have nothing to do with the President, nor with the White House," she told CNN. "The president has done nothing wrong."
& # 39; Harmful information & # 39;
The indictment documents included new details about the alleged activities of Trump's badociates, including an incident in which a senior campaigner "would have been asked to contact Stone for any further release and other damaging information that he had." Organization 1 had on the Clinton campaign ".
The indictment referred to an email dated October 2016 sent by the "senior Trump campaigner", asking Stone to inform future versions of e-mails by "Organization 1".
Stone replied that "the organization 1" would release "a charge each week in the future".
The top official is Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign leader, according to a person familiar with the matter. Bannon has not responded to a request for comment.
"The indictment was not unexpected, but it is still significant because it alleges coordination between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks," said Barbara McQuade, former US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor, said the new details of the indictment were politically detrimental to Trump, but that it remained difficult to know whether there was any exposure criminal for anyone on the orbit of Trump.
He pointed out that Mueller was keen to portray WikiLeaks as an organization involved repeatedly in posting documents stolen by US citizens.
"In the spirit of Mueller, there is a campaign with the enemy," Zeldin said. "Politically, there are a lot of things that are pretty ugly.It is not legally clear to me if there is evidence of criminal collusion between people."
Trump's critics noted that the arrest had shown that Mueller's probe was getting closer to the president himself.
"This is not a casual low-level contributor to the Trump campaign.It's some very active in Republican party politics for a long time," said US Democratic Senator Chris Coons. at MSNBC.
Stone's relationship with Trump goes back several decades.
He had urged Trump to run for president since 1988, chaired his presidential exploratory committee in 2000 and was a consultant when Trump had planned to run in 2012, according to Stone's book on Trump's campaign for the White House. in 2017.
Stone briefly worked for the Trump campaign, but he left in August 2015. The campaign said he fired after trying to catch too many spotlights while Stone insisted he quit the post.
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