ORLANDO, Fla. — Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone is out on bond after his arrest Friday by the FBI on charges of witness tampering, making false statements, and obstructing an official proceeding.

Stone walked out of federal court in Fort Lauderdale after noon Friday, after a judge set a personal surety bond of $250,000. Critics booed and chanted "lock him up" outside the courthouse, while supporters told Stone they were behind him.

"As I have always said, the only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about," Stone quipped.

 

Stone and his attorney said Stone was innocent of the charges, which they called politically motivated, and said Stone would win in the end.

"I am falsely accused of making false statements to the House Intelligence Committee. That is incorrect," Stone said. "Any error I made in my testimony would be both immaterial, and without intent."

 

 A grand jury indicted Stone on a total of seven counts. 

The 24-page indictment by the Special Counsel's Office accuses Stone of communicating with Wikileaks, at the direction of senior Trump campaign officials, on information Wikileaks might have that was potentially damaging to the Clinton campaign during the 2016 election. 

According to the indictment:

“After the July 22, 2016 release of stolen DNC emails by Organization 1 [WikiLeaks], 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.”

 

The indictment also claims Stone had knowledge of Wikileaks email releases in October and communicated about them with a high-ranking member of the Trump campaign.

 

The document also accuses Stone of trying to keep New York radio host Randy Credico from contradicting Stone's testimony to the House intelligence committee, even repeatedly telling Credico to "do a Frank Pentangeli," a reference to a character that lies to a Congressional committee in "The Godfather: Part II."

The indictment says Stone also threatened Credico, called him a "rat" or a "stoolie" and accused him of backstabbing his friends.

Stone was arrested by the FBI in a raid early Friday morning at his Fort Lauderdale home. In video that aired on CNN, agents can be heard banging on the door and shouting "FBI, open the door!"

Stone's attorney railed against the FBI for the raid. 

"The spectacle this morning with a SWAT team breaking into the house, searching the house, scaring his wife, scaring his dogs, completely unnecessary. A telephone call would have done the job, and Mr. Stone would have appeared."

Stone's indictment and arrest culminates months of speculation about whether Stone would be impacted by the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. 

Stone has long denied he did anything wrong, has publicly criticized the Mueller investigation, and said he would never turn on Trump.

Stone, a lawyer and self-proclaimed "dirty trickster" who has been involved with Republican politics since the Nixon administration, has known Trump since 1979. 

In 2017, he told Spectrum News anchor Ybeth Bruzual that his discussions with a Wikileaks intermediary, now identified by the FBI as Guccifer 2.0, were innocuous.

"It's a fraud; there is nothing there," Stone said. "There have never been any meaningful contacts between me, the Russian state, Russian intelligence, or anyone fronting for them, and I'm anxious to say that under oath."

In February 2018, an indictment by the Special Counsel's Office found Guccifer 2.0 to be a persona operated by Russian intelligence. The Russian government denies this.