WASHINGTON, United States — A furious Donald Trump blasted the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller as a “disgrace” and a “witch hunt” Monday after FBI agents raided the New York offices of the president’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Agents seized files relating to Cohen’s work, which included making a $130,000 payment before the 2016 election to an adult film actress who says she had a tryst with Trump.
Cohen’s own attorney Stephen Ryan said agents were working in part on the request of Mueller, the independent prosecutor investigating links between Russia and the Trump campaign.
At the White House, Trump angrily denounced the raid on Cohen, whom he called “a good man.”
“It’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch-hunt, I have been saying it for a long time,” he told reporters.
“It’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” he said.
The raid came as Mueller’s probe intensifies its focus on Trump’s inner circle. Mueller’s team is examining possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow, allegations of corrupt behavior by Trump campaign lieutenants, and of White House efforts to obstruct the investigation.
So far 19 people have been indicted, including the chairman of Trump’s campaign and his former national security advisor.
Trump accused Mueller Monday of overseeing a biased investigation staffed by Democrats, “a pure and simple witch hunt.”
After having turned over what he called a million pages of documents, Trump said the investigation is “now getting ridiculous. They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia.”