President Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone proclaimed his innocence Friday at a raucous courthouse press conference, hours after he was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on his Florida home and charged as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
“I am falsely accused,” Stone declared.
Stone was charged by the feds with allegedly lying about a connection between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which published Democratic emails stolen by Russian hackers in the 2016 election. In his press conference, Stone avoided a question about the possibility of a presidential pardon, but described himself as one of Trump’s “oldest friends.”
“I am a fervent supporter of the president,” Stone said. “I think he is doing a great job of making America great again.”
Stone said he would refuse to bear “false witness” against Trump, but his remarks were frequently drowned out by chants of “lock him up” from hecklers. Stone closed the press conference by holding his arms outstretched with the “V” sign in a nod to Richard Nixon, whose face Stone has tattooed on his back.
Stone gave his first interview after the arrest to InfoWars, the conspiracy theory outlet where he works. “As long as I have a breath in my body and the dollar to pay a lawyer, I’m going to fight,” he said.