Newly released footage shows longtime President Trump associate Roger Stone opening his door to heavily armed FBI agents during his pre-dawn arrest in Fort Lauderdale last month.
The video obtained by CBS12 News — owned by the right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group — was apparently from his home surveillance system, which captured him surrendering at the front door alcove.
Stone’s Jan. 25 arrest as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was first caught on camera from a distance by CNN, which sent a crew to his home before the raid took place.
“I opened the door and in my front yard, I was staring down barrel of two assault weapons and I saw a dozen other FBI agents in the background, all wearing night goggles, full SWAT gear, sidearms, and so on,” Stone told Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Scott Thuman.
“On the ground was a large metal device used to break down a door which was unnecessary,” the 66-year-old said. “I was wearing a ‘Roger Stone did nothing wrong’ T-shirt, a pair of cutoff sweatpants and bare feet. They took me out to stand in the middle of the street.”
The self-described dirty trickster and Republican operative is charged with lying to Congress and witness tampering over his communications about stolen Democratic emails in WikiLeaks’ possession.
Prosecutors allege he was “directed” by a senior Trump campaign official to inquire about the publication of the emails during the 2016 presidential campaign.
He has pleaded not guilty to one count of obstructing an official proceeding, five counts of false statements and one count of witness tampering.
“They essentially went through every square inch of my house, literally every square inch. They removed all of my electronics, my computer, my laptop, my iPad, a lot of computer disks, none of which have evidence of Russian collusion or WikiLeaks collaboration or any other crime,” Stone told Thuman.
In an earlier interview, he said the show of force was “to make me look guilty in public. To poison the jury pool. And make me look like El Chapo or some kind of drug kingpin.”
