CNN has posted this exclusive video footage of the predawn arrest Friday of Roger Stone, the longtime Donald Trump ally and 2016 presidential campaign adviser, by FBI agents, including some in riot gear, at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Stone, who has called special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into a suspected Russian attack on the integrity of the 2016 election a “wild goose chase,” has been charged with obstruction, making false statements and witness tampering. He spoke to reporters and others gathered outside the federal courthouse near midday Friday, saying he would plead not guilty to Mueller’s charges.<doc-sep>Stone described Friday’s raid, which was captured by CNN, in an interview with Alex Jones of Infowars: “Twenty-nine FBI agents showed up at my home, pounded on the door. I opened the door to pointed automatic weapons. I was handcuffed. There were 17 vehicles in the street with their lights on. They terrorized my wife and my dogs. They executed a search warrant to search the premises.”<doc-sep>The federal government finally took decisive action against criminal elements near the U.S. southern border this morning by going to Ft. Lauderdale and arresting O.G. co-conspirator Roger Stone. Stone, who has been involved in a caravan of criminal activities since at least the 1960s, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he lied to the House Intelligence Committee and obstructed their investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election. CNN aired footage of the raid, which may be the best thing not starring Regina King that I've seen this year. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. "FBI! Open the door!" Here is the footage that @DelarosaGilAJAM filmed of the FBI's pre-dawn raid at Roger Stone's home in Florida. @davidgshortell was the only reporter on the scene. pic.twitter.com/3VF22pmwA7 — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 25, 2019 Even though this footage of a bunch of people running around in tactical gear looks like the Twitch stream of someone who is not great at Call of Duty, I have still watched it 20 times. They really sent in Seal Team Six to take down retired Batman nemesis Roger Stone, who, according to court records, is 600 years old and legally "more of a construct than a person at this point." Stunning! I also love the commentary that the anchors have to give to this murky outtake from Zero Dark Thirty. "This is just remarkable. He said 'FBI! Open the door!'" "What do you think that means, Jan?" "Well, Chuck, I'm getting reports that these people are from the Federal Bureau of Investigations and they want—hold on... Yup, word is coming in that they want him to... open the door." "Astounding." "What you are watching here has never been seen before, folks." The footage, unfortunately, does not include the sight of Roger Stone padding out on to the lawn in his bedtime ensemble, which I assume is a custom three-piece pajama suit, steam-punk goggles for seeing the phantasms in the dark, and a Wee Willy Winkie hat. Call it a hunch: Mike Coppola Getty Images Not to put too fine a point on it, but this photo from the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival catches Roger Stone literally red-handed and I am undone. Mike Coppola Getty Images Maybe a little bit more caution when you apply the self-tanner, old chap! And also when you do the crimes! Also of note, Roger Stone—and I promise I am not making this up—has a tattoo of Richard M. Nixon's face on his back. Like a very unsubtle Professor Quirrell. Twitter As you may recall from the movie Nixon, Richard Nixon was an American president who liked to do crimes and use foul language and Stone began his political career working for him. So, in the future, some poor auteur is going to have to make a film about the present in which a man with a Richard Nixon back tattoo strolls into the White House of a different foul-mouthed, crime-doing president, for the purpose of doing more crimes, and everyone on screen is going to have to act like this is normal. We live in the dumbest times. Even Alex Jones is like "This seems a little too on the nose, my dude! Call me a conspiracy theorist, but there's something fishy here." This content is imported from Giphy. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. The upside of the Trump administration's ignominious time in power is that the number of indictments that I read on a regular basis has definitely jumped; I'm going to do super well on the LSATs at the end of this, I assume. The downside is that every single bit of it plays out like the absolute worst movie you ever watched over a stranger's shoulder on a plane. One of those movies that you don't even need to hear the dialogue to know it was written by a robot that was obsessed with The Godfather and starred Paul Sorvino just because he needed money to install a second pool. This is that. We're in that. Just us, Regina King's extraordinary body of work, and Roger Stone, who was roused from his crypt this morning to face charges of witness tampering, obstruction, and the accusation that he was the villain in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Get Eric Reads the News in your inbox! Sign up for ELLE.com's newsletter to receive exclusive content every Friday. SUBSCRIBE R. Eric Thomas R Eric Thomas is a Senior Staff Writer at ELLE.com, home of his daily humor column "Eric Reads the News," which skewers politics, pop culture, celebrity shade, and schadenfreude. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Just before dawn FBI agents fanned out in front of Donald Trump’s longtime associate Roger Stone’s home in the Las Olas Isles. “FBI, open the door,” one agent commanded as he knocked on the door. Moments later, a light came on on the second floor. Moments later Stone appeared in the doorway and spoke with the FBI agents. He was then taken away. The pre-dawn raid surprised many in this upscale neighborhood. “On my phone I got a CNN report saying he was arrested in Fort Lauderdale at 6 a.m. this morning and I said, “Wow, I wonder where he lives” and I was going to google it. And that was funny part, it was right down the street,” Elizabeth Boylan. Neighbors said he kept a low profile. “We were kind of surprised that it happened, but we had known that he was expecting to get raided soon by the FBI. It was just kind of a surprise that it happened so close to us,” said neighbor Emily Higgins. There’s only one road leading to the house and Friday morning it was blocked by police. “Down there, as of now, there’s two big vans, agents out in the street and the yellow tape around it. I saw them going in and out,” said Boylan. The FBI set up a tent in the Stone’s driveway, they will likely be there for hours as they carefully comb through Stone’s home looking for evidence. “I’ve been following this story since it broke. I’ve been anticipating this and it’s nice to know your gut instinct is right,” said Troy Hotchkiss. “I think it’s even bigger than (Michael) Cohen testifying in front of Congress.” A seven-count federal indictment against Stone accuses him of witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to WikiLeaks’ release. It is the first criminal case in months from special counsel Robert Mueller.