Pelosi takes shot at Trump in response to Stone indictment
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took a shot at President Trump over the arrest of his longtime associate Roger Stone, saying it was “very interesting” to see the “kinds of people” Trump surrounds himself with.
“It’s very interesting to see the kinds of people the president of the United States surrounded himself with,” Pelosi told reporters. “This connection to the integrity of our elections is obviously something we have to get the truth about.
“But it’s also bothersome to see his connections to Russia and the president’s suggestions that we should question whether we should be in NATO, which is a dream come true for Vladimir Putin,” Pelosi added, referring to the Russian president.
{mosads}Stone is the sixth associate of Trump’s to be charged in connection with Mueller’s expansive probe into Russia’s election interference and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Stone, who served as an informal adviser on the Trump campaign, was indicted on seven counts in connection with Mueller’s investigation, including one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements and one count of witness tampering.
He was arrested early Friday morning during an FBI raid on his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home.
The president renewed his attacks on Mueller in responding to the news, calling the investigation the “greatest witch hunt in the history of our country” in a tweet.
He also suggested that CNN — the only news outlet to capture dramatic footage at the pre-dawn raid — was tipped off about the arrest, asking “who alerted CNN to be there?”
The network said it was on the scene in Florida to capture the footage through its own reporting on grand jury proceedings.
Stone’s arrest came one day after an indictment was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
According to the indictment, Stone obstructed the investigations by the House Intelligence Committee and the FBI into Russian interference in the election.
He is accused of making “multiple false statements” to the committee about his interactions with “Organization 1” — an apparent reference to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks released troves of hacked Democratic emails before the 2016 election that the U.S. intelligence community later said were originally stolen by Russian intelligence agents.