On Monday, the FBI raided the office, home and hotel room of President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen. According to The Wall Street Journal, agents seized records including those related to a payment to a pornographic film actress — likely a reference to Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
The WSJ reported that the search was executed as part of an investigation by both the U.S. attorney’s office in New York and the office of special counsel Robert Mueller. However, several law enforcement officials confirmed to NBC News that the search was not the work of Mueller’s prosecutors.
That didn’t stop Trump from lashing out at Mueller, though. Speaking at the White House before a meeting with military commanders about Syria, Trump called the raid a “disgraceful situation” and an “attack on our country.” According to The New York Times, Trump also “accused his own Justice Department of perpetrating a ‘witch hunt’ and asserted that the F.B.I. ‘broke in to’ Mr. Cohen’s office.”
Cohen’s payment to Daniels is reportedly only one of the reasons he’s being investigated.
“They took everything.” FBI agents looking into payments to porn star Stormy Daniels seized Michael Cohen’s phones, computers, office records, personal financial information. @realDonaldTrump s lawyer in the crosshairs https://t.co/NWZro9Ifgv
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) April 9, 2018
Just last week, Trump denied having any knowledge of the payment. Daniels is still pursuing a lawsuit against Trump to void the nondisclosure agreement that Cohen arranged since Trump never signed it.