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 counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Stone was charged with seven counts, including one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering, according to Mueller’s office.
Stone, who has been under scrutiny for months by Mueller, has acknowledged exchanging messages during the 2016 campaign with Guccifer 2.0, a Twitter persona that U.S. intelligence officials say was a front operated by Russian military officers who conspired to hack Democratic emails.
Stone, who served briefly as an adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2015 and then continued to informally advise him, publicly cheered on WikiLeaks as it released emails hacked from Democrats during the race and before the election claimed he was in contact with the group’s founder, Julian Assange, whom he called “my hero.”
The special counsel’s office said Stone will make an initial appearance later Friday at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.
Stone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
