FBI raid of his lawyer Michael D. Cohen riles Trump.
WASHINGTON — President Trump angrily unloaded on his top law enforcement officials Monday night, complaining that the FBI “broke into” the office of Michael D. Cohen, his personal lawyer, and assailing two early-morning raids as a “disgraceful situation” and an “attack on our country in a true sense.”
The president repeatedly said the raids were part of a “witch hunt” against him that has been conducted since he took office, and he mused about the possibility that he might soon fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia inquiry.
“We’ll see what may happen,” Trump said as he began a meeting with senior military officials to discuss responses to a chemical attack in Syria. “Many people have said, ‘You should fire him.’ ”
The president railed against Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, for recusing himself in the Russia investigation, and he blasted the FBI for failing to investigate Hillary Clinton “where there are crimes.” He also lashed out at Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who is overseeing the Russia investigation.
Trump delivered the tirade hours after federal officials raided Cohen’s office and hotel room, seizing business records, emails and documents, including information related to a payment that Cohen made to a pornographic film actress.
The raids were in part the result of a referral to federal officials by Mueller. Trump called Mueller’s team “the most biased group of people” and said that it contained mostly Democrats and some Republicans who worked for President Barack Obama.
“That is really now in a whole new level of unfairness,” Trump said of the raids involving Cohen.
Officials said the White House learned about the raids from Cohen’s lawyer after they were carried out but before they became public knowledge.
Trump has long complained that the Russia inquiry was a politically motivated bid to undermine the legitimacy of his election victory. And he has been highly critical of Sessions and the FBI for failing to adequately investigate Clinton’s use of a private email server.
But the aggressive move by federal officials against Cohen, the president’s longtime personal lawyer, appeared to strike a particularly sensitive nerve. Cohen, who works for Trump’s private company, has long been considered one of the president’s closest confidants.
Trump reacted to the raids without any prompting from reporters, who had been brought into the Cabinet Room where the president was meeting with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, new national security adviser John R. Bolton and other military officials to discuss the situation in Syria. As the cameras began rolling, Trump immediately condemned the actions against Cohen.
“So, I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and it’s a disgraceful situation,” he said. “It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time. I’ve wanted to keep it down.”
It was unclear what Trump meant by saying he “wanted to keep it down.” He went on to criticize Mueller’s team for examining the president’s associates.
“They only keep looking at us. So they find no collusion, and then they go from there and they say, ‘Well, let’s keep going,’ and they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning, and I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump said.