Media

Gingrich compares FBI raid of Trump lawyer to Nazi secret police

by Rebecca Savransky - 04/12/18 8:58 AM ET

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) tore into the FBI after its raid of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, likening agents’ actions to those of the secret police during the Nazi era.

Gingrich said during an interview on Fox News that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has “not done his job” and has not supervised special counsel Robert Mueller.

“This whole thing is an absurdity. We’ve now had Paul Manafort and his wife in their pajamas at 3 in the morning having the FBI break down the door,” he said on Wednesday, referring to an FBI raid last year at the home of Trump’s former campaign manager.

“Cohen, the lawyer, had the door taken off of the hinges at 6 in the morning.”

He also tore into the Justice Department and said the country is supposed to have the “rule of law.”

“It ain’t the rule of law when they kick in your door at 3 in the morning and you’re faced with armed men. And you have had no reason to be told you’re going to have that kind of treatment,” he continued.

“That’s Stalin. That’s the Gestapo in Germany. That shouldn’t be the American FBI.”

The FBI earlier this week raided the office of Cohen and seized emails, tax documents and records related to his payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.

Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said in a statement earlier this week that federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant after receiving a referral “in part” from special counsel Robert Mueller. Ryan called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.”

Trump was reportedly enraged after the raid.

A report earlier this week said the president is considering firing Rosenstein.

Officials told CNN that Rosenstein, the No. 2 Justice Department official who reportedly personally approved the FBI raid, is Trump’s most likely target.

Under DOJ regulations, Rosenstein is the only person with the power to fire Mueller, if he has cause to do so, since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself last year.

President Trump on Thursday pushed back against a New York Times report that said he tried to fire Mueller in December, calling the story “fake news from a biased newspaper.”