Trump associate Roger Stone arrested by FBI in pre-dawn raid

Update (12:45 p.m., Jan. 25):

Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone was released on $250,000 bond at his court appearance on Friday, the Associated Press reported. Stone told the press he will plead not guilty, and says he will not testify against the president.

Original post follows...

Political consultant Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Donald Trump, was arrested in a pre-dawn FBI raid on Friday. Stone faces seven federal charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.

What are the details?

FBI agents wearing body armor with weapons drawn swarmed Stone's home in southern Florida just after 6 a.m. to serve a warrant for what the Daily Mail referred to as "process crimes." He was charged with five counts of making false statements, one count of witness tampering, and one count of obstruction of official proceedings.

Stone was not charged with crimes directly related to Russian collusion or with conspiracy to sway the 2016 election, which is the subject of the special counsel's investigation.

The grand jury indictment accuses Stone of seeking emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee, which were obtained by WikiLeaks (referred to as Organization 1 in the document). The emails were stolen from John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Prosecutors allege that Stone lied to Congress in 2017 when he denied asking an intermediary to contact WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the campaign. Stone was a consultant to the Trump campaign.

"After the July 22, 2016, release of stolen (Democratic National Committee) emails by Organization 1, a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact STONE about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton Campaign," prosecutors wrote. "STONE thereafter told the Trump Campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by Organization 1."

What else?

The New York Times reported in November that emails show Stone "sold himself to Trump campaign advisers as a potential conduit to WikiLeaks, which published thousands of emails in 2016 damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign."

Stone has repeatedly maintained his innocence, and told the Daily Mail in early January that he didn't expect to be indicted.

"They got nothing," he said of the special counsel. "They've tried hard, but I didn't do anything illegal. That's why I'm not worried."

CNN reported that Stone is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 11 a.m. ET Friday.