Donald Trump on Friday lashed out after his longtime confidant Roger Stone was arrested as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign.
Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2019
Trump repeated his claim that the investigation is a “witch hunt,” appearing to make a reference to a conspiracy theory spread by former Fox News and CNN host Greta Van Susteren. She suggested without evidence that the “FBI obviously tipped off CNN,” which first reported Stone’s arrest.
Van Susteren issued a correction later, but not before right-wing websites like InfoWars and Drudge Report spread the claim.
Stone, 66, was arrested in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday following an indictment by a grand jury in the District of Columbia.
Stone is charged in a seven-count indictment with witness tampering, obstruction and false statements about his interactions related to the release by WikiLeaks of hacked emails during the 2016 presidential election. Some of those false statements were made to the House intelligence committee, according to the indictment.
The indictment lays out in detail Stone’s conversations about stolen Democratic emails posted by WikiLeaks in the weeks before the Republican beat Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Mueller’s office has said those emails, belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, were hacked by Russian intelligence officers.
