Roger Stone, a former longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, was arrested in Florida on Friday morning following a federal indictment resulting from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling probe into Russian election meddling.
FBI agents armed with rifles took the self-decsribed dirty trickster into custody in a dramatic pre-dawn raid with their weapons drawn and a lead agent shouting 'Warrant!'
Stone is charged with seven federal counts including five of making false statements, one of witness tampering and one of obstruction of official proceedings.
Stone is due to appear at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Friday morning, according to Mueller's office.
As Stone makes his court appearance another Trump ally – former campaign chairman Paul Manafort – will also be appearing in a Virginia courtroom.
Manafort, who has already been jailed for conspiracy, is facing new allegations that he lied to members of Mueller's team while cooperating as part of his plea deal.
Roger Stone, a close confidant of Donald Trump, was arrested Friday morning in Fort Lauderdale on seven charges including witness tampering as part of the Russia probe
Stone is accused of feeding information from Wikileaks about the DNC email hack to the Trump campaign during the 2016 election
The former Nixon campaign adviser has long been portrayed as a central figure in the election interference scandal, but as recently as January 4 told Dailymail.com that he doesn't expect to be indicted.
'They got nothing,' he said of the special counsel's investigation.
'They've tried hard, but I didn't do anything illegal. That's why I'm not worried and I'll do a public appearance like tonight's without a problem.'
A copy of the indictment says that during the summer of 2016 Stone spoke to senior Trump campaign officials about information held by Wikileaks that might by damaging to the Clintons.
The campaign official replied to Stone asking him to inquire about potential future release by Wikileaks, the indictment alleges.
Stone is also accused of making 'multiple false statements' about his contacts with Wikileaks, and wrongly denying having records of these conversations.
He is also accused of trying to persuade a witness 'to provide false testimony to and withhold pertinent information from the investigations.'
Robert Mueller's team also accuse Stone of trying to hide evidence of his contact with Wikileaks from investigators and trying to convince a witness to lie
Stone will appear in court Friday as Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, also appears before a judge accused of lying to Mueller's team while cooperating with the probe
Stone has accused Mueller of harassment after the counsel's sleuths tracked down and interviewed 19 of his friends and business associates.
'My cleaning lady had to go back to Cuba for a while, so I hired a temp,' Stone said.
'The temp spoke only Spanish. I never knew her name or anything. Yet, government agents found her in Miami. They asked her if I was meeting with Russians at home.
'Now, how they found her when I didn't even know her name, I can only guess. I know she had nothing to say to them.'
He claims agents showed some of Stone's friends a photo of the two-year-old boy born to Kristin Davis, the infamous Manhattan Madam whose prostitution service was used by disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and, allegedly, the likes of retired baseball slugger Alex Rodriguez.
'They kept asking if the baby was mine,' the married Stone said. 'What does that have to do with Russian collusion? The baby is not mine, I'm the godfather. But that's an invasion of privacy if I've ever seen one.'
Being at the forefront of this political scandal has been 'financially debilitating, to say the least,' he says.
He's been involved in a half dozen lawsuits that have resulted in up to $200,000 each in legal bills.
Preparing for his 2017 House testimony, when he was interviewed by the Intelligence Committee for four and half hours, also cost him $400,000, he said.
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News Photo Trump ally Roger Stone arrested following indictment in Robert Muller's Russia probe
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