‘Roger Stone vindicated by the fact there was no Russian collusion’ – lawyer

Roger Stone’s lawyer, Grant Smith, has said that his client is “vindicated,” by the fact that the indictment against him does not mention “Russian collusion,” and instead charges him with relatively minor process crimes.

“They found no Russian collusion or they would have charged him with it,” read a statement from Smith. “Roger Stone is vindicated by the fact there was no Russian collusion.”

Stone is charged with one count of obstruction, one count of witness tampering, and five counts of making false statements. Smith claimed that the misstatements his client made were “immaterial” and allegedly due to forgetfulness.

©  REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

“This was an investigation about Russian collusion and now they’re charging Roger Stone with lying to Congress about something he honestly forgot about,” Smith continued. “Roger intends to fight these trumped up baseless charges.”

President Trump's legal counselor Jay Sekulow weighed in later on Friday. “The indictment today does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or anyone else. Rather, the indictment focuses on alleged false statements Mr. Stone made to Congress,” 

Stone allegedly made the false statements in an effort to cover up a 2016 claim that he acted as an intermediary between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which published a trove of Democratic Party emails.

Stone was arrested by heavily-armed FBI agents in a pre-dawn raid at his Florida home on Friday. A CNN camera crew accompanied the agents to Stone’s door. Later on Friday, the veteran political consultant was released by a Ft. Lauderdale judge on a bond of $250,000, and had his travel restricted.

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