White House press secretary Sarah Sanders sought to distance the White House from President Trump’s longtime political aide Roger Stone, who was indicted by a federal grand jury, saying the charges have “nothing to do with the president and certainly nothing to do with the White House.”
“This is something that has to do solely with that individual and not something that affects us here in this building,” Sanders told CNN in an interview Friday.
Stone was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
He was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday morning and faces seven counts, including obstruction of justice, making false statements and witness tampering.
According to the indictment, following the July 2016 release of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and published by WikiLeaks, a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone “about any additional releases and what other damaging information” WikiLeaks had about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
When pressed by CNN as to whether it was Trump who directed a campaign official to contact Stone, Sanders demurred.
“I’m not an attorney,” she said. “I haven’t read through that. Even if I had, I’m not going to be able to provide you with some type of insight or legal analysis. What I can tell you is that the specific charges that have been brought against Mr. Stone don’t have anything to do with the president.”
Sanders went on to stress that Trump did not collude with Russia and did not commit any wrongdoing.
“The charges brought against Mr. Stone have nothing to do with the president,” he said. “That’s what I’m clear on and that’s what I can tell you about today.”
