Roger Stone, longtime Trump friend, indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

President Donald Trump's longtime friend and veteran political operative Roger Stone was arrested Friday morning after special counsel Robert Mueller filed a seven-count indictment against him as part of an ongoing probe into Russia interference during the 2016 presidential election.

The special counsel leveled against Stone, 66, five counts of lying to Congress, one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, and one count of witness tampering.

Stone was arrested and appeared in court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, late Friday morning. The indictment was filed on Thursday.

Within hours of the FBI’s pre-dawn arrest at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Stone made an initial court appearance Friday morning, where a federal judge set his bond at $250,000 and limited his travel to Florida, New York, Virginia and Washington, DC, where he will be arraigned next week.

The charges brought by Mueller’s office largely revolve around false statements Stone is accused of making to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees regarding his communications with associates about Wikileaks.

(MORE: Targeted by Mueller, what did Trump confidante Roger Stone actually do?)

PHOTO: Political operative Roger Stone speaks at the American Priority conference in Washington D.C., in this Dec. 6, 2018 file photo. (Jim Urquhart/Reuters, FILE) More

In court documents unsealed Friday morning, Mueller’s prosecutors wrote that after WikiLeaks began releasing internal Democratic National Committee emails in the summer of 2016, an unidentified "senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information [Wikileaks] had regarding the Clinton Campaign."

"Stone thereafter told the Trump Campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by [Wikileaks]," prosecutors say.

In a hastily organized press conference following his court appearance, a defiant Stone pledged to fight the charges.

“I am falsely accused of making false statements,” he said, shouting over protesters outside the courthouse. “There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president... I look forward to being fully and completely vindicated.”

Stone, 66, struggled to shout over protesters chanting “lock him up!” – a reference to chants of “lock her up” directed at Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Trump rallies during the 2016 campaign.

(MORE: Roger Stone sought contact with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, email suggests.)

Although never mentioned by name, WikiLeaks' alleged role in the 2016 presidential campaign was previously referenced in Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers, whom the special counsel’s office accused of hacking Democrats' emails.

During the campaign, WikiLeaks published emails allegedly hacked and stolen from Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta and documents from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee. Some of the hacked emails were first published on the "DCLeaks" website, which Mueller alleges was a front for Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU.

In addition to the pre-dawn raid on his Florida home, federal agents obtained a search warrant for Stone’s New York home – described as a “spacious two bedroom” apartment in Harlem. Agents were spotted Friday taking hard drives and other evidence from the apartment.

An attorney for Stone, Grant Smith, chalked up Stone’s alleged lies to Congress as “something he honestly forgot about” and “vowed to fight the charges.”

(MORE: Robert Mueller appears laser-focused on Roger Stone. These emails explain why.)

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, special counsel on the Russian investigation, leaves following a meeting with members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee at the US Capitol in Washington. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images, FILE) More

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