Top Republicans are demanding answers from the FBI about the heavily armed pre-dawn FBI raid of Roger Stone’s home in Florida on Friday.
Stone, a longtime confidant of President Trump, was arrested for charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but has accused law enforcement officials of employing “Gestapo tactics” against him.
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked for “justification for the tactics used and the timing of the arrest of Mr. Stone,” noting that the “spectacle” has added fuel to the media’s scrutiny of Mueller’s work.
“[W]hile I firmly support law enforcement taking into account threats to officer safety, flight risk, and the need to ensure evidence is preserved, I am leery that a subject of the Special Counsel’s investigation, who had retained counsel, had publicly stated that he believed that he would at some point be indicted, and was apparently willing to surrender voluntarily, was arrested in a pre-dawn raid at his home,” Graham said.
Echoing Graham was the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Doug Collins, R-Ga., who expressed concern with media reports and video footage of the arrest showing approximately two dozen FBI agents wearing tactical gear and “wielding M4 rifles.”
“Given the fact the FBI is embroiled in a scandal related to the origins of this investigation, we are perplexed about why the FBI would use such a show of force to arrest an elderly man,” Collins wrote in his own letter to Wray.
Last week a grand jury indicted Stone on seven counts of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a congressional inquiry about communications with WikiLeaks — stemming from his interview with the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017 as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Stone has not been charged with coordinating with Russia or WikiLeaks. Mueller’s team is investigating whether there was collusion between members of President Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin as well as Russian interference in the 2016 election more broadly.
Trump and his allies have routinely panned the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt.”
Stone pleaded not guilty in federal court on Tuesday and, while he has indicated a willingness to cooperate with Mueller, claims he will not testify against President Trump.
Stone was released on a $250,000 bond and has since hit the media circuit.
