President Trump is expected to announce Friday he’ll back a move to reopen the government for a few weeks. He’s slated to make a statement on this development at the White House Friday afternoon, amid a tumultuous day with the federal government shutdown affecting staffing at airports. Earlier Friday, his former campaign adviser and associate Roger Stone appeared in federal court.
Mr. Trump is expected to meet with mayors and pastors later in the day.
Stone was indicted by a federal grand jury and arrested, the special counsel’s office announced Friday morning. The indictment, unsealed Friday, lists seven counts: one count of obstruction of an official proceeding; five counts of false statements; and one count of witness tampering. Stone made his first appearance in federal court Friday morning in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was to be released on a $250,000 bond.
Mr. Trump tweeted a response to Stone’s indictment, questioning how CNN had obtained footage of the arrest. The CNN reporter said that its crew staked out Stone’s house Friday morning after reporters noticed unusual grand jury activity in Washington, D.C., on Thursday and thought something could happen.
“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?” Mr. Trump wrote.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said earlier on CNN that Stone’s arrest and court appearance was completely unrelated to Mr. Trump.
“This has nothing to do with the president and certainly nothing to do with the White House. This is something that has to do solely with that individual and not something that affects us here in this building,” she said.
Stone isn’t the only former Trump associate appearing in court Friday. Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is making his first court appearance in months on Friday as prosecutors and defense lawyers argue over whether he intentionally lied to investigators, including about allegedly sharing polling data with a business associate the U.S. said has ties to Russian intelligence.
Meanwhile, the government shutdown has reached its 35th day, the longest in American history. Around 800,000 federal workers missed their second paycheck this week, with roughly half of them working without pay. Several workers in critical agencies have been calling in sick due to financial difficulties.
Flights in and out New York City’s LaGuardia airport were delayed on Friday morning due to staffing shortages among air traffic controllers, according to a notice issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. Elsewhere, a flight was canceled due to a lack of sufficient TSA staff at the Monroe Louisiana airport Friday morning.
Sanders said in a statement that Mr. Trump had been briefed on the delays and that the White House is “in regular contact with officials at the Department of Transportation and the FAA.”
-Graces Segers reporting for CBS News. Kathryn Watson contributed to this report
