Roger Stone, a confidant of President Donald Trump, was arrested Friday morning on several criminal charges stemming from the special counsel's Russia investigation.

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 brought by special counsel Robert Mueller does not accuse Stone of coordinating with the Russian government's election interference in 2016, the key matter under investigation in the probe. But 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.

Stone is scheduled to appear in court in Florida later Friday. The indictment had been expected. Stone has said for months he was prepared to be charged, though he has denied any wrongdoing. A grand jury for months had heard from witnesses connected to Stone. And the intelligence committee last year voted to release a transcript of Stone's testimony to Mueller as a precursor to an indictment.

Stone has publicly denigrated the Mueller investigation and echoed the president's descriptions of it as a witch hunt. But he has long attracted investigators' attention, especially in light of a 2016 tweet that appeared to presage knowledge that emails stolen from Podesta would soon be released. Stone has said he had no inside information about the contents of the emails in WikiLeaks' possession or the timing of when they'd be released.

He has said he learned from Randy Credico, a New York radio host, that WikiLeaks had the emails and planned to disclose them. Stone has released emails that he says support that assertion.

Prosecutors had offered a plea agreement to Stone friend Jerome Corsi that would have required the conspiracy theorist and conservative author to admit that he intentionally lied to investigators about a discussion with Stone about WikiLeaks. But he rejected the offer.

Washington, DC - 6 December 2018

1. Mid of Roger Stone walking to podium

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Roger Stone, Trump Confidant

"We are at a point now where I'm sure many of you heard yesterday that I have elected to invoke my Fifth Amendment rights when it comes to the witch hunts being conducted by the Senate Intelligence and the Senate Judiciary Committees. Just for the record, I informed through my attorneys both of those committees, that I would not be turning over three tractor trailer loads of documents for them to root for, and I will not testify unless I am allowed to testify in public, so the American people can hear every word."

+++BLACK FRAMES+++

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Roger Stone, Trump Confidant

"I answered all these questions before the House Intelligence Committee for four hours behind closed doors, and I stand behind every word."

4.SOUNDBITE (English) Roger Stone, Trump Confidant

"If Mr. Schiff has any proof whatsoever that I had advance notice of the source or the content of the allegedly hacked or stolen emails published by WikiLeaks or that I received anything of the kind. I challenge him to produce it now or shut up. Just as in his previous claim to have been to have seen substantial evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign in producing none. The congressman is completely full of Schiff."

+++BLACK FRAMES+++

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Roger Stone, Trump Confidant

"Because this is not about Russian collusion. It's about the parsing of words. It's about process crimes and perjury traps, and I decline to participate."

+++BLACK FRAMES+++

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Roger Stone, Trump Confidant

"Some of you may have seen that I appeared on ABC with George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday. And I said in that interview something that I have said previously for the last two years many times on the public record. And that is no matter what happens I will not bear false witness against this president. I will not make up stories and lies in the effort to remove him."

+++BLACK FRAMES+++

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Roger Stone, Trump Confidant

"I think most Americans now understand that the Russian collusion delusion is meant to be a distraction from the far more serious abuse of power in which the Obama administration used the authority and the capability of the state through the use of illegal and illicit FISA warrants to spy on Donald Trump's campaign for president, and use the FBI to infiltrate the Trump campaign for the purposes of planting faux Russian collusion."

8. Mid of Stone exiting stage