Trump Team’s Conflicts and Scandals: An Interactive Guide

The Donald J. Trump Foundation was used to settle its namesake’s personal debts, benefit his business and boost his presidential campaign in violation of the state tax code, according to a lawsuit filed in June by New York’s attorney general. In December, Trump agreed to shut it down under an agreement with the state that called for the charity’s remaining $1.7 million in assets to be given away.

The foundation, which operated for years with no full-time staff and hardly any expenses, kept costs low by relying on work performed by Trump Organization executives. The attorney general named Trump and three of his children as defendants—Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric—alleging they breached their fiduciary responsibilities by failing to properly supervise the foundation’s assets. Prosecutors say the lack of oversight allowed the foundation to operate as little more than a personal piggy bank for Trump, who used it to settle lawsuits against his business, allow campaign officials to direct contributions and, in one instance, buy a $10,000 painting of Trump that he displayed at his golf course near Miami.

New York’s tax agency launched its own investigation, which could lead to a criminal referral for possible state prosecution. Trump, who announced after the election that he would dissolve the foundation, has called the state’s case “ridiculous.” The foundation’s lawyer said it’s politically motivated. The lawsuit against Trump and his three eldest children continues despite the impending closure.

Donald Trump Jr. is one of three people who oversee the trust that contains the confederation of business interests known as the Trump Organization. He’s also in the middle of some of the biggest controversies stemming from his father’s presidential campaign, including a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer arranged by a British publicist offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.

An avid hunter and outdoorsman, he has become a magnet for Republican political candidates seeking to bag big money from wealthy donors. But he’s also actively involved in the Trump Organization’s affairs, flying around the world to promote the family’s business interests the way his father did before the 2016 election. That’s led to concerns that Donald Jr. is susceptible to special interests seeking favors with the Trump administration, especially as the company struggles to find new ways to grow the business with its chief owner living in the White House.

A charity run by Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons and a top executive at his namesake company, is under investigation by New York’s attorney general.

The Eric Trump Foundation raised $16.3 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. But the charity, now known as the Curetivity Foundation, has come under scrutiny for making payments to Trump-owned businesses—more than $300,000 from 2014 through 2016 at discounted prices, according to tax filings—even though Eric Trump said in a promotional video that it didn’t pay Trump golf courses to host fundraising events.

Eric Trump resigned as board chairman in December 2016, according to an audit filed with Florida regulators in 2017, which said the foundation is cooperating with investigators and doesn’t expect any action that could impact its assets. He’s also a named defendant in New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s lawsuit against his father’s foundation for allegedly failing to properly oversee the foundation as a board member. A spokeswoman for Eric Trump said he isn’t associated with Curetivity.

Ivanka Trump, who has scores of trademarks around the world, built a fashion brand that relied on overseas factories. That opened her up to criticism that favor-seekers could pit her business interests against those of the American public.

Take China. Since the beginning of May, when her father pushed to save Chinese telecom giant ZTE Corp. from ruinous penalties imposed by his administration for flouting U.S. sanctions, Ivanka Trump has received final approval for at least a dozen trademarks on items ranging from mousetraps to aromatherapy stoves, according to a Chinese government online database. While the time frame for the approvals was similar to previous applications, her refusal to divest her business interests after taking a White House job created the appearance of possible conflict. She has been awarded more than 40 trademarks in China, which when combined with those listed in a World Intellectual Property Organization database brings her worldwide total to more than 100.

In July, she announced she was closing her company to focus on her White House role. Abigail Klem, president of Ivanka Trump’s company, said the firm is filing trademarks to prevent unrelated parties from capitalizing on her name. A spokeswoman for the firm declined further comment.

When Jared Kushner joined his father-in-law’s administration in January 2017, he scored points with ethics watchdogs for hiring a lawyer to address potential conflicts of interest. But the plan called for divesting real estate assets to family members, some of whom do business with institutions seeking favors from the White House.

A meeting at Trump Tower that Kushner attended with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe preceded Kushner Cos.’ sale of a building to a company whose largest owner is Japan’s government. His family held talks with one of China’s largest finance firms, and a firm hired by Kushner Cos. highlighted Jared’s White House role in pitches to investors in that country. Finance executives whose firms were issuing mortgages to Kushner Cos. visited Jared in the White House, and his father, Charles Kushner, had meetings with Qatar’s finance minister about an investment.

Kushner had to file more than 40 updates to disclosures about his assets and liabilities, as well as three about contacts with foreign persons. Jared Kushner’s spokesmen have said he has avoided any conflicts by recusing himself from the operations of his companies before entering government not involving himself in decisions involving his investments.

Kushner’s Financial Disclosures

A timeline of revised disclosures

Data revised

Jan

2017

Appointed assistant to the president and senior adviser to the president

Feb

Mar

Disclosure submitted following 18-day extension

U.S. Office of Government of Ethics official decides filing is in compliance

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Receives U.S. Office of Government Ethics certification

Aug

Data revised

Appointed assistant to the president and senior adviser to the president

U.S. Office of Government of Ethics official decides filing is in compliance

Receives U.S. Office of Government Ethics certification

Disclosure submitted following 18-day extension

Jan

2017

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Scott Pruitt was facing more than a dozen investigations into his taxpayer-funded travel, questionable spending decisions, use of aides to conduct personal errands and other matters when he resigned July 5. The myriad probes homed in on his actions after joining the agency. But even before he got there, Pruitt, 50, enraged environmentalists—and won praise from conservatives—for targeting the EPA with more than a dozen lawsuits in his former role as Oklahoma attorney general.

As EPA administrator, he drew fire for renting a bedroom in a Capitol Hill condominium from the wife of a lobbyist for $50 a night, just for when he stayed there. The landlord’s husband, lobbyist J. Steven Hart, had clients with business before the EPA and was part of at least one meeting with Pruitt in 2017. Questions also were raised about the extent to which Pruitt used his public office for personal gain. He enlisted aides to run personal errands, including helping him find housing in Washington, try to buy a second-hand mattress from the Trump International Hotel and pursue a Chick-fil-A Inc. franchise for his wife. In congressional hearings, Pruitt cast aside some of the controversies as “half truths” and “exaggerated” attacks by critics eager to derail the president’s agenda. Pruitt said he understood some staffer help was undertaken on personal time. An internal EPA ethics review also concluded the condo was rented at fair market value. Representatives for Pruitt didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Scott Pruitt’s Expenses

How $4,448,247 was spent

= $1,000 spent

$3,500,000

Round-the-clock security in 2017

$733,737

Travel for round-the-clock security in 2017

$164,200

Italy trip for Pruitt and nine staff members

$43,000

Soundproof phone booth installation

$3,000

Contractor searching for hidden listening devices in Pruitt’s office

$2,750

“Tactical pants” for Pruitt’s security team

$1,560

“Tactical polos” for Pruitt’s security team

= $1,000 spent

$3,500,000

Round-the-clock security in 2017

$733,737

Travel for round-the-clock security in 2017

$164,200

Italy trip for Pruitt and nine staff members

$43,000

Soundproof phone booth installation

$3,000

Contractor searching for hidden listening devices in Pruitt’s office

$2,750

“Tactical pants” for Pruitt’s security team

$1,560

“Tactical polos” for Pruitt’s security team

Wilbur Ross may have violated conflict-of-interest rules while divesting hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, two watchdog organizations have alleged. It’s a turnaround for the 80-year-old Commerce Secretary, whose plan to sell assets was praised by Senate Democrats at his confirmation hearing. Now they’ve joined a growing chorus that also includes members of the House calling for investigations of Ross’s actions while unwinding his fortune. His lawyer said that none of the complaints provide a factual or legal basis for believing Ross violated conflict-of-interest or other laws or engaged in unethical conduct.

Separate complaints by the Campaign Legal Center and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed to government agencies in mid-August claim that Ross helped formulate the administration’s steel tariffs and promote liquid natural gas exports while holding interests in companies affected by those decisions. Both complaints cite a May 18, 2017, lunch Ross had with the chief executive officer of railcar manufacturer Greenbrier Cos Inc., William Furman, before the cabinet official sold his holdings in the company. Furman wrote a letter to Commerce two weeks after the lunch, in which he said steel tariffs would negatively impact the company. A spokesman for Ross told Forbes that it was a “purely social lunch” and that he hadn’t taken any actions that would have a direct and predictable effect on his financial holdings. Ross didn’t fully divest from Greenbrier until Dec. 14, when he sold shares worth at least $250,000, according to a June 18 filing with the Office of Government Ethics that listed 15 other transactions. The holdings were “inadvertently” omitted from Ross’s initial financial disclosure, the filing said.

On June 27, top Democrats on eight House committees with jurisdiction over the Commerce Department requested its inspector general review Ross’s compliance with federal ethics rules and his potential conflicts of interest. The next day, three Senate Democrats asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to look into whether Ross violated insider-trading rules when he shorted Navigator Holdings Ltd. in October. Ross learned a few days before his sale that the New York Times was preparing a story on the shipping firm, which did business with a company linked to associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Its stock fell 3.9 percent over the period in which he held the position. Ross and the Commerce Department have said all the transactions were approved by ethics officials. Ross noted he wasn’t required to divest his holdings in shipping companies, that he used the short sale because he didn’t have access to the shares to sell them, that knowledge of an upcoming story wasn’t market-moving information, and that there was no profit or loss on the transaction.

Ross also sold between $10 million and $50 million worth of Invesco Ltd. shares in December, about eight months after he promised to divest them, explaining that he mistakenly believed the holdings had been sold. The shares increased in value by 14.1 percent in the interim. Ross said on July 7 that he would divest his remaining equity holdings after the government’s top ethics watchdog said his failure to sell assets “created the potential for a serious criminal violation.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke left the Trump administration in January amid mounting federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest.

Zinke was the subject of at least eight investigations by the department’s inspector general among other probes. They ranged from his use of private travel to threatening two Alaska Republican senators over one of their votes on health-care legislation. The department’s inspector general concluded that Zinke could have avoided spending $12,375 on a charter flight after a speech last year to a hockey team owned by a former campaign contributor. The investigation into the threats was closed after the senators declined to be interviewed and other complaints weren’t substantiated.

While most internal probes are likely to end with Zinke’s departure, criminal investigations such as one into his involvement in a land deal with a property development group backed by Halliburton Co. Chairman David J. Lesar that was referred to federal prosecutors may continue.

Trump said on Twitter that Zinke, 57, “accomplished much” during his nearly two years leading the agency. Zinke said, also on Twitter, that “after 30 years of public service, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations.” He leaves just before Democrats who vowed to investigate him take control of the House of Representatives and gain subpoena power.

Investigations Into Interior Secretaries Since 2001

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke faces 15 government investigations, more than the last four secretaries combined

Ryan Zinke 15 investigations**

541 days in office*

Sally Jewell 0 investigations

1,380

Ken Salazar 4 investigations

1,544

Dirk Kempthorne 2 investigations

959

Gale Norton 5 investigations

1,886

*As of Aug. 22, 2018. **11 confirmed, 4 pending

Ryan Zinke

15 investigations**

541 days in office*

Sally Jewell

0 investigations

1,380

Ken Salazar

4 investigations

1,544

Dirk Kempthorne

2 investigations

959

Gale Norton

5 investigations

1,886

*As of Aug. 22, 2018. **11 confirmed, 4 pending

Tom Price was criticized at his confirmation hearings for investments he made while serving as a Georgia congressman. The transactions that received the most scrutiny involved privately offered shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd., an Australian drug company he learned about from a New York congressman who sits on the company’s board.

Price invested in Innate Immunotherapeutics as negotiations were underway over a bill to speed up drug approvals. He voted in favor of the bill. The New York congressman, Chris Collins, was indicted Aug. 8 along with his son for insider trading related to the biotech company. Price divested health-company stocks worth as much as $631,000 in order to join the Trump administration, before the alleged insider trading took place. Price isn’t named in the indictment of Collins or accused of wrongdoing. He resigned in September 2017 amid an uproar over his use of private and military jets at taxpayer expense. The department’s inspector general said in a report in July that the government wasted at least $341,000 on Price’s travel during his seven months in office, including booking charter flights without considering cheaper alternatives.

Flying High

Secretary Price’s wasteful spending on chartered flights

$456,785

Chartered aircraft cost

$51,887

Repayment from former Secretary Tom Price

$71,885

Average commercial cost

$333,013

Waste

(cost difference)

$456,785

Chartered aircraft cost

$51,887

Repayment from former Secretary Tom Price

$71,885

Average commercial cost

$333,013

Waste

(cost difference)

Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, amassed an array of business ventures in the two years between his retirement from the military and his White House appointment. Those associations led to complaints about possible conflicts of interest and one criminal charge. Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to federal agents about a $530,000 consulting contract he had with Dutch company Inovo BV that was primarily intended to benefit Turkey’s government. He also admitted to lying about his post-election contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

The centerpiece of Flynn’s private-sector work was Flynn Intel Group, a consulting company he started in 2014 with Bijan Kian, an Iranian-American businessman with extensive ties in Washington’s foreign policy establishment. The firm’s aviation unit sought work flying diplomats and military cargo into conflict zones, and its cybersecurity unit offered training and consulting for government agencies and private businesses. Flynn and Kian had also worked together at GreenZone Systems Inc., a company that designed secure computer chips and would later seek contracts as part of a Middle East nuclear power plan that Flynn advocated during his 24-day tenure as national security adviser.

While a private citizen, Flynn also accepted paid advisory positions, board seats and public speaker engagements from organizations with the potential to conflict with his administration duties. His work for Russian firms was of particular concern. In 2015, he partnered with Brainwave Science, co-founded by a man who had worked with the KGB, to sell technology to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He also failed to disclose payments from three Russian companies, including $45,000 for speaking in December 2015 at the 10th anniversary gala of Russian state-owned media outlet RT, where he sat with Vladimir Putin. Flynn resigned his White House post in February 2017 after information surfaced that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Kislyak.

Sources of Flynn’s $1.9M Income

Income reported for 2016

$827K

Flynn Intel Group (Consulting)

$233K

Other income

$176K

Speaking fees

$140K

NJK Holdings

(affiliated with

GreenZone)

$125K

Adobe Systems

$50–100K

Flynn Intel Group

(business income)

$90K

Quaestor Federal Consulting

$65K

Novetta

$59K

Francisco Partners

$50–100K

Return on investments

(capital gains)

$233K

Other income

$176K

Speaking fees

$827K

Flynn Intel Group (Consulting)

$140K

NJK Holdings

(affiliated with

GreenZone)

$125K

Adobe Systems

$50–100K

Flynn Intel Group

(business income)

$90K

Quaestor Federal Consulting

$65K

Novetta

$59K

Francisco Partners

$50–100K

Return on investments

(capital gains)

White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who’s also head of the Office of Management and Budget, received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from payday lenders when he was in Congress. After Trump named him acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he said that wouldn’t pose a conflict because he was no longer in elected office and had no plans to run for one in the future. He later proposed loosening regulations on the industry. A spokesman for Mulvaney said it is ludicrous to think campaign contributions he received years ago while serving in Congress would influence him today.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson allowed his son to help organize an agency listening tour in Baltimore, despite being told by government lawyers that doing so might violate ethics rules. He canceled an order for a $31,000 dining set for his Washington office amid media attention that the expense exceeded a $5,000 limit for office redecoration. Carson has said he had little involvement in the matter. His office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s investments in a debt-collection company and the nation’s largest operator of for-profit charter schools raised concerns about possible conflicts of interest during her nomination hearings. She agreed to divest those and 100 other holdings. The department later awarded a contract to the debt-collection company, which DeVos said she had nothing to do with.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s use of military aircraft for eight trips that cost taxpayers almost $1 million didn’t violate any laws, according to a report by the department’s inspector general. But the report faulted Mnuchin for a “disconnect between the standard of proof called for... and the actual amount of proof provided” to justify the requests. After the internal investigation, Mnuchin started making more information about his plane trips publicly available.

Mnuchin’s Costly Trips

Treasury Secretary used military aircraft eight times over eight months in 2017

Jan

Feb

Mar

$301K

U.K., Germany

Apr

May

$314K

Italy

Jun

$16K

Canada

$45K

Miami

Jul

$15K

New York

Aug

$33K

Louisville &

Fort Knox, KY

$95K

W. Virginia & Las Vegas

Sep

Oct

$184K

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar

Nov

Dec

$45K

Miami

$301K

U.K., Germany

$184K

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar

$314K

Italy

$33K

Louisville &

Fort Knox, Kentucky

$16K

Canada

$15K

New York

$95K

West Virginia & Las Vegas

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether Brock Long broke agency rules by using government vehicles to commute from Washington to his home in Hickory, North Carolina. He made regular trips, bringing with him staff who stayed in nearby hotels, according to Politico. House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy has asked Long to see documents related to the travel, and the matter has been referred to federal prosecutors, the Wall Street Journal reported. Long said he’s focused on leading the response to Hurricane Florence.

Paul Manafort was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for felonies uncovered as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. A federal judge in Washington added 43 months on March 13 for illegal foreign lobbying and witness tampering on top of the 47 months Manafort received the previous week from a judge in Virginia for eight felony counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and failure to disclose a foreign bank account. Minutes after the second sentencing hearing, he was charged by prosecutors in New York with residential mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records, which could lead to additional prison time.

Manafort concealed a series of financial crimes when he joined Trump’s campaign in 2016 after decades of work as an international political consultant. His clients had included Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian party in Ukraine. But when Yanukovych fled to Moscow in 2014, Manafort’s income dried up and he struggled to pay for his lavish lifestyle, prosecutors argued at a three-week trial in Virginia. A jury found him guilty on Aug. 21, 2018, of eight counts and deadlocked on 10 others.

On Sept. 14, days ahead of a trial in a related case in Washington, Manafort pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts, admitting he hid an illegal $11 million lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukraine and joined an associate with suspected ties to Russian intelligence in tampering with witnesses. He also agreed to forfeit several properties, including a brownstone in Brooklyn, a condominium in Soho, an apartment in Trump Tower and an expansive home in the Hamptons.

Manafort pledged to cooperate with Mueller’s Russia investigation. But on Nov. 26, Mueller said he lied repeatedly to authorities after striking the plea deal. A judge later agreed that he breached his plea deal. Trump has repeatedly expressed sympathy for Manafort and said he wouldn’t rule out a pardon for his former campaign chairman. Trump can’t pardon Manafort if he’s convicted on state charges.

Supporting a Lavish Lifestyle

Prosecutors say Manafort earned $60 million in Ukraine from 2010 to 2014 and spent more than $18 million on personal luxuries

$6.4M

Real Estate

$5.4M

Home improvement on

Bridgehampton estate

$1.7M

Antiques, rugs and art

$1.4M

Home automation, lighting & entertainment

$1.3M

Clothing

$1.1M Other

$820K Landscaping

$273K Cars

$1.7M

Antiques, rugs and art

$6.4M

Real Estate

$1.4M

Home automation, lighting and entertainment

$1.3M

Clothing

$5.4M

Home improvement on Bridgehampton estate

$1.1M

Other

$820K

Landscaping

$273K

Cars

Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, was sentenced to three years in prison on Dec. 12 for evading federal income taxes, participating in a scheme to pay hush money to two women on Trump’s behalf before the 2016 election and lying to banks and Congress. Cohen pleaded guilty to nine felony charges and agreed to cooperate with investigators looking into Russian interference in the election and into the Trump Organization’s business practices. “It was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,” Cohen told the court at his sentencing. The president has said Cohen is lying.

Cohen, who once said he would “take a bullet” for his boss, testified before a Congressional committee in February, saying of Trump, “He is a racist. He is a con man. He is a cheat.” He accused the president of overstating his net worth when seeking bank loans and insurance policies.

Cohen said that Trump directed him to pay $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford, the adult-film actress known as Stormy Daniels, and that he helped arrange payment of $150,000 to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. He said he made the payments to the women, who claim they had affairs with Trump, to boost the candidate’s White House bid and that he was repaid $420,000 by the Trump Organization after he submitted sham invoices. At least three Trump Organization executives were involved in reimbursing Cohen, court records show.

A cascade of disclosures revealed how Cohen sought to profit from Trump’s victory. Companies including AT&T Inc. and Novartis AG paid him at least $2.4 million after the election for his insights into the Trump administration. Novartis’s top lawyer stepped down after the payments surfaced, and its former chief executive officer said the company should have done more due diligence before agreeing to pay Cohen. After AT&T forced out a veteran lobbyist, its CEO said Cohen’s hiring was a “big mistake” and that its vetting process had failed. Cohen also helped develop a Ukrainian peace proposal that he said he later threw in the trash. He was named vice chairman of the fundraising arm of the Republican National Committee after the election but quit in June 2018 when his criminal investigation burst into view.

Elliott Broidy, a Los Angeles money manager, forged a relationship with Trump by raising millions of dollars for his presidential campaign. After the election, he sought to make that relationship pay off. According to documents later stolen from his computer and leaked to the media, Broidy explored lucrative consulting arrangements with a sanctioned Russian company and a Malaysian financier under criminal investigation, neither of which panned out. His defense-contracting firm did win business from foreign governments.

His advocacy for the blockade of Qatar, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, preceded business opportunities in those two countries. Broidy, who served as a Republican National Committee deputy finance chairman, hasn’t been charged with anything illegal and says he didn’t do anything wrong. He says political opponents hacked him in order to silence him.

A month before taking office, Trump named Carl Icahn, a Wall Street billionaire he’s known for decades, as his special adviser on regulatory reform. The informal, unpaid title didn’t require the financier to give up control of his $20 billion business empire. It soon became clear there was only one regulation Icahn wanted to reform: an Environmental Protection Agency rule on ethanol credits he said was costing refineries he owns hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

He pestered Trump’s candidates for EPA chief about his pet issue and then phoned the president and tried to get him to order a change directly. The White House distanced itself from the plan after a backlash from senators, and Icahn later gave up his advisory title. This year, Reuters reported that one of Icahn’s refineries won a special waiver from the rule. Democrats, meanwhile, have called for an investigation into Icahn’s trading in ethanol credits. Icahn says he’s done nothing wrong.

Rick Gates, a business partner of Paul Manafort’s who became deputy chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign, pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to FBI agents and conspiracy against the U.S. in connection with his work with Manafort as an unregistered lobbyist on behalf of a former Ukrainian president.

George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, pleaded guilty in October 2017 to lying to FBI agents about contacts he had with Russians who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton. On Sept. 7, he was sentenced to 14 days in jail.

Carter Page’s trip to Moscow in July 2016 while serving as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign drew the attention of the FBI. He stepped down from his position that September before a federal judge granted a Department of Justice request to authorize surveillance. Page hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing and says he’s never been an agent of any foreign government.

Roger Stone, a longtime Republican strategist and sometime confidant of Donald Trump, was arrested in Florida on Jan. 25 and charged with obstructing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and lying about his communication with WikiLeaks. The indictment says Stone served as a link between the Trump campaign and the release of Democratic National Committee emails stolen by state-sponsored Russian hackers to embarrass Hillary Clinton.

A self-described political showman and dirty trickster whose career dates to the Nixon administration and who has a Richard Nixon tattoo on his back, Stone was a Trump campaign aide until his abrupt departure in August 2015, but he remained an informal adviser. The indictment lays out how Stone, after leaving the campaign, continued communicating regularly with unnamed senior campaign officials about an organization matching the description of WikiLeaks and how a senior Trump campaign official—identified by a person familiar with the matter as Stephen Bannon—was directed to contact Stone.

Stone, 66, said outside the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that he intends to plead not guilty. “I will defeat them in court,” he said. “I believe this is a politically motivated investigation.”