Roger Stone arrest: Trump confidant faces major indictment as president attempts to reopen government

Trump campaign officials were in contact with Stone over Wikileaks and hacked Clinton campaign emails, according to indictment

Roger Stone: 'I am falsely accused of making false statements during my testimony to the house intelligence committee. That is incorrect, and any error I made in my testimony would be immaterial and without intent'

Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser Roger Stone has been arrested by the FBI as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible campaign links to Russia.

The FBI has charged Mr Stone on seven counts, invcluding witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to the release by WikiLeaks of hacked emails during the 2016 presidential election.

Stone disputed the charges while leaving a Florida courthouse on Friday, saying in a statement, "I look forward to being fully and completely vindicated."

"I am a fervent supporter of the president," he added, vowing to never testify against the president or pleading guilty to the charges.

He was released on a $250,000 bond.

The arrest comes as the White House is reportedly preparing a draft emergency declaration that would allow Donald Trump to circumvent Congress if lawmakers do not fund his southern border wall.

The president effectively announced an end to the government shutdown on its 35th day on Friday, agreeing to a temporary resolution that would open shuttered federal agencies for three weeks as negotiations over the border wall remain ongoing.

The move arrived a day after a bill backed by Mr Trump to end the shutdown, which included $5.7 billion he wanted for the wall, and a separate bill supported by Democrats to reopen federal agencies without such funding, did not garner the votes required to advance in the Senate.​

“We do not need 2,000 miles of concrete wall from sea to shining sea, we never did,” Mr Trump said at one point, walking back vows he made throughout the campaign to build a wall sprawling the entirety of the US-Mexico border.

He added, “We never proposed that. We never wanted that, because we have barriers at the border where natural structures are as good as anything that we can build“.

Read below for our live coverage on the latest indictment from the special counsel

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Key Points

• President reportedly now ready to declare national emergency to end shutdown
• Former Trump adviser Roger Stone arrested by FBI in relation to Russia probe
• Sarah Huckabee Sanders questioned live about Roger Stone indictment

[25 January 2019 13:24 · Adam Forrest]

More details from the grand jury indictment used to arrest Roger Stone this morning. Robert Mueller’s prosecutors claim Stone urged a friend to lie to Congress, citing a character from The Godfather Part II.

[25 January 2019 13:34 · Adam Forrest]

Some interesting analysis from FiveThirtyEight that suggests the most noticeable group of people turning against Trump over the shutdown are the politically independent.

There’s been a seven-point poll increase in the share of independents who blame the president for the standoff.

[25 January 2019 13:53 · Chris Riotta]

Sarah Huckabee is live on CNN defending Donald Trump and attempting to separate the president from Roger Stone’s arrest, saying “this has nothing to do with the president” on multiple occasions. 

[25 January 2019 13:54 · Chris Riotta]

Roger Stone Jr, the US president’s former adviser, has been arrested as part of the special counsel's investigation into the Trump campaign and its links to Russia.

[25 January 2019 13:57 · Chris Riotta]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on to say "the president did nothing wrong, there was no collusion...unlike his predecessor he has been tough on Russia"

She also said White House did not receive a heads up about the Roger Stone indictment.

[25 January 2019 14:05 · Chris Riotta]

“I never want to get on an airplane that only has one wing,” the White House press secretary said while defending Donald Trump’s border wall.

[25 January 2019 14:20 · Chris Riotta]

The FBI has charged Mr Stone on seven counts, involving witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to the release by WikiLeaks of hacked emails during the 2016 presidential election.

[25 January 2019 14:35 · Chris Riotta]

Jared Kushner obtained a top-level security clearance to work in his father-in-law’s White House despite the advice of multiple specialist adjudicators, according to a new report.

How the 38-year-old senior White House adviser managed to obtain the coveted status has been a question among security experts and attorneys specialising in security clearance law ever since he joined the administration.

[25 January 2019 14:50 · Chris Riotta]

As the fight continues over Donald Trump’s demand to extend the border wall between the United States and Mexico, one thing is clear: Whatever the wall’s effect on immigration might be, it would have an impact on the environment of the borderlands.

[25 January 2019 14:53 · Chris Riotta]

Roger Stone isn’t the only Trump ally having a tough day. 

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is back in court, wearing a suit after he was given special permission, to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s claims he lied after signing a plea deal with investigators.