Roger Stone, a long-time ally of US President Donald Trump, has said he was falsely accused of lying to the House Intelligence Committee and will plead innocent to the charges filed against him by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
"I will plead not guilty to these charges. I will defeat them in court," Mr Stone told reporters outside a federal courthouse after he was released on bail.
"There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president."
Mr Stone appeared in court hours after his arrest in a pre-dawn raid at his Fort Lauderdale home by heavily armed police.
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He was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements to Congress and witness tampering.
Mr Trump described the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign as a "witch-hunt".
Mr Stone, a veteran political operative, is one of the closest Trump associates to be charged by Mr Mueller.
The indictment showed Mr Stone using language evoking mob bosses - and even cited a Godfather film - as he called an unnamed associate facing FBI inquiries "a rat" in a series of profanity-laced messages.
Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2019
Mr Stone was an early Trump backer whose reputation as an aggressive political operative and self-proclaimed "dirty trickster" dates back to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s when he was working for Richard Nixon. He has a tattoo of Nixon's face on his back.
His lawyer, Grant Smith, said that Mr Stone would "vigorously" contest the charges.
"There was no collusion," Mr Smith said. "He forgot to tell something to Congress and what it was was immaterial."
The indictment, which arose from Mr Stone's statements in testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017, involved his 2016 communications with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which published material stolen by Russian hackers from the Clinton campaign.
WikiLeaks, which is referred to as "Organisation 1" in the indictment, did not respond to a request for comment.
Thirty-five people have pleaded guilty, been indicted or otherwise swept up in the Russia inquiry, which has clouded Mr Trump's two-year-old presidency.
Those people include former close associates of Mr Trump such as his one-time lawyer Michael Cohen and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort as well as 12 Russian intelligence officers.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the Stone indictment was unrelated to the president.
"The charges brought against Mr Stone have nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the White House," she told CNN. "The president did nothing wrong."
The charging documents included new details about the alleged activities of Trump aides, including an incident in which a senior campaign official "was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organisation 1 had regarding the Clinton campaign".
The indictment referred to an October 2016 email from the "high-ranking Trump campaign official" asking Mr Stone to inquire about future releases of emails by "Organisation 1".
Mr Stone responded that "Organisation 1" would release "a load every week going forward".
