Political adviser and consultant Roger Stone said Monday he does not plan to cooperate with the special counsel’s investigators.
Stone served as a political adviser for the president back during the election season of 2016. He was arrested in connection with the probe against President Donald Trump and was released on a $250,000 bond.
Stone was arrested last week on charges of obstruction, making false statements and witness tampering in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While addressing a crowd of reporters, Stone said he doesn’t plan to cooperate with federal investigators.
“I don’t answer hypothetical questions,” Stone said outside his home when asked by one of the reporters.
“I have no intention of doing so, however.”
Related: Roger Stone Arrested as Part of Mueller’s Wide-Ranging Russia Probe
Stone seemed to be considering whether or not to cut a plea deal when he said over the weekend on ABC News that he was undecided on that point.
He became a focus of the investigation after working on the Trump campaign, which he left early on in August 2015. He previously worked with the president as a casino business lobbyist in Washington.
“I don’t understand who Mr. Mueller is accountable to — if he’s not accountable to the Congress or the executive and he has broad authority because our special counsel laws have expired, you can see the type of travesty that happened last week,” Stone said. “I’m 66 years old, I do not own a gun, I do not have a valid passport, I have no prior criminal record, I’m charged with nonviolent process crimes.”
Stone added the police stormed his house in an unnecessarily aggressive show of force.
He accused them of trying to terrorize his wife and his dogs. He also said the authorities made no attempt to contact him or his lawyer beforehand and that if that had done so, he would have voluntarily turned himself in.
On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders reacted to the Stone news by stating the arrest had nothing to do with the president.
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller has been leading the special counsel investigation since it was launched May 2017. His team is looking into whether the president or his associates colluded with Russian interests to influence the presidential election of 2016.
Related: Roger Stone Denies Early Access to Hacked Clinton Emails
The special counsel investigation has long focused on Stone as well as other former associates of the president. He was accused in his indictment last week of working to obstructing congressional investigators by making false statements, denying he had records they sought, and persuading a witness to provide false testimony.
The special counsel team has taken down a handful of other former associates of the president. Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges. Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn became an early target over accusations he lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Michael Cohen, a former attorney for the president, drew the attention of the special counsel team on a few fronts.
He allegedly helped to cover up extramarital affairs and conducted shady business deals on behalf of the president. Cohen worked with federal investigators and admitted to many of the allegations since turning himself in August 21.
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