WASHINGTON (AP) – White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the arrest of former Donald Trump campaign adviser Roget Stone in the special counsel’s Russia probe has nothing to do with the president.
Sanders’ comments came hours after Stone was arrested Friday during a pre-dawn raid at his Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home.
Stone was charged in a seven-count indictment that includes witness tampering, obstruction and false-statements charges but has long maintained his innocence.
The indictment provides the most detail to date about how Trump campaign associates were aware in the summer of 2016 that emails had been stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Court documents say a senior Trump campaign official “was directed” to contact Stone about additional releases and “what other damaging information” WikiLeaks had “regarding the Clinton campaign.”
On CNN, Sanders wouldn’t directly answer a question about which campaign official directed Stone to obtain information about the WikiLeaks disclosures.