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Donald Trump furious after FBI raids his lawyers offices

US President Donald Trump has branded a Federal Bureau of Investigation raid on the offices of his personal lawyer a “disgrace” in an angry tirade.

The FBI raided seized records on topics including a US$130,000 payment made to a porn actress Stormy Daniels when agents raided Michael Cohen’s offices Tuesday morning (AEDT).

Mr Cohen has been at the centre of a controversy surrounding payment to Ms Daniels, who has alleged that she had sex with Mr Trump in 2006 and was paid money shortly before the 2016 election to keep quiet about it.

The raid on Mr Cohen’s office was undertaken by the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan and based at least partly on a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, Mr Cohen’s lawyer Stephen Ryan said in a statement.

Mr Trump responded to the raid by calling Mr Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference “an attack on our country.”

“I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. Good man. And it’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch hunt,” the President said.

“It’s an attack on our country. It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”

Mr Ryan said in a statement the decision to “conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary”.

“It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients,” he said.

Mr Ryan did not elaborate further on the contents taken but a source said the FBI seized emails, tax documents and business records, according to the The New York Times.

Mr Cohen did not immediately respond to a request for comment while a spokesman for Mr Mueller had no comment.

Mr Mueller is investigating allegations that Russia meddled in the US presidential election in 2016, and investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Russia has denied allegations that it interfered in the election, and Mr Trump and the White House have repeatedly said there was no collusion.

Mr Ryan said in his statement that Mr Cohen has co-operated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators for their own probes into Moscow’s alleged efforts to influence the US election.

-with AAP

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