BREAKING: DONALD TRUMP’S LONGTIME FRIEND, ARRESTED

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Emerging reports confirm that political strategist Roger Stone, a long-time ally of American President, Donald Trump, has been arrested in Florida.

Mr Stone who was charged with seven counts in the Mueller probe will reportedly appear in court later in the city of Fort Lauderdale.

The charges against him are linked to an alleged Russian-led hack into the emails of Democratic Party officials.

The information contained in the emails was reportedly released by WikiLeaks during the 2016 US presidential election campaign.

According to CNN, FBI agents arrested Mr Stone in a pre-dawn raid on Friday. One pounded on the door and said, “FBI… Open the door,” the US outlet says.

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta, who was targeted in the email hack, accused Mr Stone of knowing about it beforehand.

According to investigators, Mr Stone said he had “communicated” with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange before the emails’ release and had described the contact as “perfectly legal”.

The indictment accuses the lobbyist of lying to the House Intelligence Committee about what passed between him and WikiLeaks, and of falsely claiming not to have records of it.

Mr Stone is said to have spoken to senior Trump campaign officials – who are not identified – about “organization 1” [believed to be WikiLeaks] “and information it might have had that would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign”.

Prosecutors say Mr Stone was also “contacted by senior Trump campaign officials to inquire about future releases” by WikiLeaks.