Roger Stone Arrested By FBI Team Before Dawn, Guns Drawn
The Fort Lauderdale home of Roger Stone was raided Friday just after 6 a.m. ET after the former Trump aide was indicted by a grand jury. CNN caught the FBI raid on video when a team of agents knocked loudly on his door, announcing they had a warrant for his arrest and to search his residence. Stone will be arraigned at 11:00 a.m. in a Florida courtroom.
Roger Stone is the only member of the Trump team to be arrested in this manner by agents, who were armed and wearing vests with no previous warning to Stone or his legal team. Stone opened the door and went into police custody without event, and the agents began the search of his home.
“[Stone] was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on seven counts, including one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering,” CNN wrote.
On the audio, one can hear an FBI agent yell “FBI, open the door, we have a warrant,” as they pound loudly in the dark outside Stone’s Fort Lauderdale residence.
More information will be gained from the indictment documents later this morning, but for now, the papers indicate that October 7, 2016, was a pivotal moment in Stone’s involvement with alleged criminal activity related to the Trump and Clinton campaigns.
A federal grand jury has indicted Donald Trump associate Roger Stone on charges of lying about the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced Friday. https://t.co/cjLGtb7gg4
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) January 25, 2019
“On or about October 7, 2016, Organization 1 released the first set of emails stolen from the Clinton Campaign chairman. Shortly after Organization 1’s release, an associate of the high ranking Trump Campaign official sent a text message to STONE that read ‘well done.'”
CNN was the only media outlet on the scene this morning at 5 a.m. on a hunch after the Mueller grand jury met yesterday.
Roger Stone has been a character of sorts related to Donald Trump and the Trump campaign for years, and he is well-known for being a “trickster” associated with Joseph McCarthy-era fixer Roy Cohn and disgraced former President Richard Nixon, whose face is tattooed on Stone’s back, as previously reported by the Inquisitr.
Stone, who parted ways in a friendly manner with the Trump campaign has continued to profess his own innocence and the innocence of Donald Trump.
“There is still not an iota of proof that anyone on the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians.”
Legal expert Michael Smerconish explained this morning that the seven indictments could be just the beginning or starter indictments, and special counsel Robert Mueller can add more at any time.
