By Agencies
USA: There is trouble is the White House. As you read, President Donald Trump’s top ally Roger Stone has been arrested by the Federal Bureau Investigation on charges of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements. Stone’s arrest follows an investigations being conducted by the office of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has announced. Stone was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Friday after an indictment was issued by a federal grand jury in Washington DC the day before, said a spokesman for Mueller, who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election and any ties to the Trump campaign.
The indictment alleges that Stone made multiple attempts to contact WikiLeaks through an intermediary about documents stolen from the Democratic national committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and passed on information to Trump’s election campaign team about the documents. Stone – a longtime political adviser to Trump – would appear in court in Fort Lauderdale later on Friday, the spokesman said. Mueller’s indictment describes a senior Trump campaign official being “directed” to contact Stone regarding releases damaging to the Clinton campaign, which could potentially implicate Trump in collusion with Russia. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders refused to answer questions on whether Trump had directed the unnamed official, adding: “The charges brought against Mr Stone have nothing to do with the president.”
Mueller’s indictment alleges that during the summer of 2016 Stone spoke to senior Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks “and information it might have had that would be damaging to the [Hillary] Clinton campaign. Stone was contacted by senior Trump campaign officials to inquire about future releases by” WikiLeaks, which the document refers to as “Organization 1”. “On multiple occasions, Stone told senior Trump campaign officials about materials possessed by Organization 1 and the timing of future releases,” the document states. It also alleges that Stone made “multiple false statements” about his interactions regarding WikiLeaks, “falsely denied possessing records that contained evidence of these interactions”, and “attempted to persuade a witness to provide false testimony to and withhold pertinent information from the investigations”.
