Video shows FBI's predawn raid on Trump associate Roger Stone's house
With guns drawn, FBI agents in combat gear and night-vision equipment fanned out just before dawn Friday in front of the Florida home of President Trump's former campaign adviser, Roger Stone.
"FBI! Open the door!" one agent commanded as he repeatedly pounded on the door in a video of the raid broadcast on CNN. "FBI warrant!"
Moments later, a light came on on the second floor. Stone appeared in the doorway in sleepwear with his glasses on.
"Are you Roger Stone?" an agent asked him. "Yes," he responded. Stone was then led away, charged with seven counts in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
"When the FBI wants to really make a splash, this is just the way they do it," CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman said on CBSN. "They go in at dawn. They wake someone up when their defenses are most down. They let them get dressed, and they cart them off to the jailhouse."
Stone's attorney called the morning raid a "spectacle" and "completely unnecessary."
"Everyone knows where Roger Stone is," Bruce Rogow said. "He's not in hiding."
Stone spoke to reporters about the raid after making his first appearance in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "This morning at the crack of dawn, 29 FBI agents arrived at my home with 17 vehicles with their lights flashing, when they could simply have contacted my attorneys and I would have been more than willing to surrender voluntarily," he said. "They terrorized my wife, my dogs."
Klieman said the raid on Stone's house was both ethical and proper, given Stone's repeated public vows to never testify against or incriminate Mr. Trump under any circumstances.
"This is fine to be able to do this at the dawn hours, to wake him up and say, 'Hey buddy,' without saying it, 'you're going to jail right now, you're going up to Washington. This is going to cost you a fortune in legal fees and maybe you want to rethink all those statements,'" Klieman said. "It is very effective, and that's why they do it."
Stone remained defiant, however, in the hours following his arrest.
"I will plead not guilty to these charges. I will defeat them in court," Stone said. "As I have said previously, there is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president, nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself. I look forward to being fully and completely vindicated."
Following Stone's arrest, the president suggested that CNN was tipped off about the raid.
Mr. Trump tweeted, "Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?"
CNN responded on Twitter, saying the video resulted from "determined reporting" and "interpreting clues revealed in the course of events."
Stone posted a $250,000 bond for his release Friday. He said he is scheduled to be arraigned in a Washington, D.C., court next week.
