Stone cold loser, dirty trickster, little rat, fringe operative, clothes horse.

All have been used to describe Roger Stone, who has this week floated to the top of the morass to so far result from the Mueller probe.

And yes, I'm talking about this guy:

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A campaign operative and lobbyist who's been on the fringes of the Republican Party for decades, Mr Stone once worked with Donald Trump's ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Their firm, Black, Manafort, Stone and Atwater, called dictators like Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos their clients.

Mr Stone and Mr Manafort now share something else in common. They've both been charged by the special counsel investigating possible links between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

Mr Stone has pleaded not guilty. The indictment includes five counts of making false statements (lying), one of obstructing justice and another of witness tampering.

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Mr Stone had long predicted he would be indicted as part of the Russia investigation.

That might be why international media attention on his arrest and plea didn't generate the blanket coverage that other Mueller moves have.

A week after his arrest, most have already moved on.

But this story goes deeper than Mr Stone's alleged interactions with Wikileaks and its timed releases of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails that were hacked by Russian intelligence operatives.

It goes to potential coordination between Mr Stone and senior members of the Trump campaign.

Stone's indictment could lead to others

"After the July 22, 2016 release of stolen DNC emails by Organization 1," the indictment reads, "a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact STONE about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton Campaign."

Unlike the other indictments of former Trump associates Mr Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen and George Papadopoulos, this filing points directly to the involvement of Trump campaign officials in coordinating the email dumps.

It makes sense that a campaign would be interested in what Wikileaks had on Hillary Clinton.

But soliciting that information from a foreign national for the purposes of influencing the election could be a serious legal violation.

There's also the fact that the emails were (coincidentally) hacked by the Russians. Go figure.

I was "lucky" enough to encounter Mr Stone when I attended his arraignment hearing in the DC District Court.

It was quite an experience to say the least.

Journalists, supporters and protesters mobbed this week's star of the reality TV show that we live in.

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Mr Stone was arrested last Friday (local time) in the early hours of the morning. Nearly 30 heavily armed FBI officers swarmed and searched his Florida home. He left in handcuffs.

The dramatic scene was televised live and has attracted criticism from Republican politicians who see the overall Russia investigation as a rogue operation.

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Mr Stone originally said the FBI agents were "courteous". Though he noted that his dogs — two Yorkshire terriers — were frightened.

By lunchtime, Mr Stone was out on a $US250,000 ($344,000) bail. His exit from court was just as theatrical as his arrest.

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The sense of spectacle is consistent with the eccentric Mr Stone's antics over time.

He's claimed credit for political scandals dating back decades.

He entered politics at age 19 and quickly got caught using a pseudonym to make campaign contributions from the "Young Socialist Alliance" to make an opponent look like a progressive puppet.

He praised himself for the resignation of a former governor after spreading a rumour that he kept his socks on during sexual encounters with prostitutes.

He has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back and wears only custom-made suits, usually with a crisp pocket handkerchief.

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He's an admitted swinger who once advertised in a magazine, with his wife, for group sex partners.

One 1980s profile described him as a "State of the Art Sleazeball".

Indictment raises several questions

The President's lawyer Rudy Giuliani has dismissed the charges against Mr Stone as another false statement case. Conservative pundits say they're "process charges".

But lying to Congress could mean that Mr Stone coordinated his story with other Trump associates.

Thus the indictment raises several questions.

For one, who directed that campaign official to contact Mr Stone?

And is that person also set to be indicted?

Robert Mueller said his evidence file on Mr Stone spans "several years", and fills "multiple hard drives containing several terabytes of information".

Among other things, it contains bank records, FBI reports and "the contents of numerous physical devices (eg, cellular phones, computers, and hard drives)".

Some have connected the fact that then-candidate Mr Trump seemed to publicly endorse Wikileaks at a press conference days after the first emails leaked.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press," Mr Trump said in July 2016.

There's also the staggering fact that one of the key Wikileaks dumps of hacked emails from Ms Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta happened just an hour after the infamous Hollywood Tapes story broke, in which Mr Trump is heard bragging about grabbing women "by the pussy".

The indictment makes frequent mention of "person 1" and "person 2" — a notation used by the special counsel for individuals who haven't been indicted.

Journalists have identified the individuals as writer Jerome Corsi and radio host Randy Credico. Corsi has told the press the timed drop after the tapes story broke was what Mr Stone wanted.

In total, 34 people in Mr Trump's orbit have been indicted or pleaded guilty so far.

Only a few who worked intimately on the campaign are left, and they're in the President's inner circle.

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Meanwhile, the special prosecutor's office reported that self-proclaimed Russian hackers stole, doctored and released evidence.

This is the latest attempt to discredit the special counsel's work, and it came with a special target: an investigation into a firm charged with funding a Russian propaganda campaign to interfere in the 2016 election.

Mr Mueller and his team are still working.

Last month, unnamed officials told US media networks the special counsel's report could come as soon as mid-February.

This week, the acting attorney-general said he'd been briefed by Mr Mueller's team and believed the report was nearly complete.

So we'll be waiting. Rather impatiently.