BOCA RATON, Fla. – Roger Stone, an associate of President Donald Trump, held a news conference Wednesday in Boca Raton -- an event he said was planned before he was arrested at his Fort Lauderdale home in connection with the Russia probe.
During the news conference, Stone talked about the Jan. 25 raid at his home, the charges against him and how he plans to fight them.
Stone is charged with five counts of making false statements, one count of obstructing an official proceeding and one count of witness tampering.
"I have plead not guilty," Stone said. "I stress that my indictment does not include Russian collusion (and) does not include any collaboration with WikiLeaks."
The indictment against Stone is part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors said Stone was the middle man between the campaign and WikiLeaks, which provided damaging information about political rival Hillary Clinton, and that he lied about it to the House Intelligence Committee.
Stone's appearance Wednesday at the City Fish Market was scheduled ahead of his arrest to promote his new book, "Stone's Rules: How to Win at Politics, Business, and Style."
Stone said in the book, he discusses his career as an operative for American presidents from Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan to Donald Trump.
The book is said to share Stone's lessons on playing the media and looks at his push to legalize marijuana.
He spoke with local news outlets at the appearance about the recent raid and how a cable news network, CNN, wasn't just in the right place at the right time when they got footage of the raid.
"My lawyers filed a motion to show cause because we now know that the special council's office released my indictment two and a half hours before it was unsealed by a federal magistrate," Stone said.
Stone believes the early release of the indictment may have tipped off CNN.
"CNN also says they have been staking out my house every Friday for months. The security cameras show no such thing and, in fact, the CNN reporter called me the day before and asked me for my home address," Stone said. "I think it's abundantly clear from the video camera, which I sent to the Senate and House Judiciary Committee, that CNN showed up 15 minutes before the FBI, that they set up their camera 10 minutes before the FBI arrived. That would have to be the shortest stakeout in American history."
Stone said he has texts and a possible time line to prove that his sealed indictment was released prior to his arrest.
He also said the indictment has had a negative financial impact on him, and he is now raising $2 million for his defense.