WASHINGTON: Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump, was arrested on Friday on charges relating to the investigation into possible collusion between the president’s election campaign and Russia.

Stone was taken into custody by heavily armed police in a predawn raid at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after an indictment was unsealed in Washington by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

He appeared in Fort Lauderdale court in handcuffs charged with seven counts, including obstruction of justice, making false statements to Congress and witness tampering.

The cuffs were removed from the 66-year-old veteran Republican political consultant as he posted $250,000 bail.

“I will plead not guilty to these charges. I will defeat them in court. I believe this is a politically-motivated investigation,” Stone said as he emerged from court.

His statement was interrupted by chants from onlookers of “lock him up!” — a caustic reference to the frequent refrain used during the campaign to rally Trump’s base against rival Hillary Clinton.

“I will not testify against the president, because I would have to bear false witness against him,” Stone added.

His lawyer Grant Smith had earlier told the South Florida Sentinel that Stone was “absolutely innocent” of the charges.

The White House rejected suggestions that the noose was getting tighter around Trump, who has denied any collusion with Russia.

“This has nothing to do with the president and certainly nothing to do with the White House,” spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told CNN.

Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow added in a statement that the indictment did not allege Russian collusion by Stone or anyone else.

Contacts with WikiLeaks

The indictment, which arose from Stone’s statements in testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017, involved his 2016 communications with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which published material stolen by Russian hackers from the Clinton campaign.

The indictment made ample mention of communications between Stone and unnamed “senior officials” of the Trump election campaign about his communications with WikiLeaks and releases of the stolen materials.

Tantalisingly, the indictment says that after WikiLeaks’ July 22, 2016 release of stolen Democratic emails, “a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information” WikiLeaks might have on Clinton.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2019