The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked the FBI to provide a briefing to the panel about last week’s arrest of political consultant Roger Stone.
In his letter, Graham said he had supported Special Counsel Mueller’s ability to conduct his investigation and had always been a strong admirer and supporter of the FBI. But he added, “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.”
Stone served briefly as an adviser to the Trump campaign in 2015 before being fired by then-candidate Donald Trump that year.
All of the charges against Stone are unrelated to President Donald Trump or his presidential campaign.
After the arrest, the president and others denounced the way Stone was detained, which was captured live by CNN.
“Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers are treated better,” Trump tweeted on Jan. 25, hours after the pre-dawn arrest, adding “Who alerted CNN to be there?”
Meanwhile, Barry Pollack, the lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, described the arrest as a “dawn military-style arrest” that “was wholly unnecessary and served no purpose other than intimidation.”
“The charges against Mr. Stone do not allege that Mr. Stone lied about his [lack of] contacts with Julian Assange, but rather about his contacts with others and about documents reflecting those communications,” Pollack said in a statement.
Graham is now demanding an explanation for “the tactics used and the timing of the arrest” of Stone.
“The American public has had enough of the media circus that surrounds the Special Counsel’s investigation. Yet, the manner of this arrest appears to have only added to the spectacle,” he wrote in his letter.
“Given the facts 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 in the arrest of an elderly man,” Collins wrote in his letter.
Mueller has been investigating whether the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia in influencing the 2016 presidential election. He has indicted several Trump-campaign associates but has not charged anyone for colluding with Russia.
Trump has consistently called the investigation a witch hunt and has denied any collusion. He has also questioned why his allies are being prosecuted while those who oppose him haven’t been charged with similar crimes.
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