Trump's long-time adviser, Roger Stone, indicted by a special counsel in an investigation in Russia

Roger J. Stone Jr. , a longtime informal adviser to President Trump, was arrested by the FBI on Friday after being indicted in the investigation by special advocate Robert S. Mueller III.

Stone was charged with seven counts of indictment, including one for obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of falsifying witnesses, according to Mueller's office. .

Stone, who has been under surveillance for months with Mueller, admitted to exchanging messages during the 2016 campaign with Guccifer 2.0, a character from Twitter who, according to US intelligence officials, was a front op

Stone, who briefly served as advisor to Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2015 and then continued to advise him informally, publicly acclaimed WikiLeaks by publishing emails hacked by Democrats The Race and before the elections claimed that He was in contact with the group's founder, Julian Assange, whom he had nicknamed "my hero".

The Special Council Office announced that Stone would be appearing for the first time later on Friday at the Fort Lauderdale courthouse. .

Stone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

CNN broadcast a video on Friday morning in which law enforcement officials broke into Stone's home in Fort Lauderdale.

The publication of WikiLeaks emails embarrassed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and helped disrupt the White House race. In July, a grand jury indicted 12 Russian army officers for allegedly orchestrating acts of piracy.

Since the election, Stone has denied any contact with Russia or WikiLeaks. He stated that he had no intention to suggest that he had communicated directly with Assange and had qualified his Twitter exchange with Guccifer 2.0 as benign.

Stone, 66, told NBC "Meet the Press" in May that he was "ready" to be charged, saying that such an approach would be "an effort to silence or punish the supporters of the president and his lawyers ".

"It's no longer inconceivable now that Mr. Mueller and his team are trying to evoke a foreign crime my business or maybe not even with regard to the 2016 election," Stone said. then. "I would consider this an effort to silence me."

Mueller and a team of prosecutors have been working since May 2017 to determine whether Trump associates have conspired with Russia to interfere in the elections. The president has always denied any involvement in Russia's efforts.

Mueller's investigation had already led to charges or convictions of 32 people, including four associates with Trump.And August 21, a jury convicted Former Trump campaign president, Paul Manafort, of eight heads of tax and banking fraud The former Trump deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and the old co George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to various charges.

Separately, Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty in New York for tax evasion, lying campaign funding violations that, according to Cohen, a court had been ordered by Trump. And W. Samuel Patten, a Republican agent, pleaded guilty in Washington not to have been registered as a foreign agent in connection with the work for a Ukrainian political party and admitted that he was not a foreign agent. he had directed an illegal foreign donation to Trump's inaugural fund. Mueller's office did not carry any of these cases.