FBI raids California home of YouTube star Jake Paul
FBI
agents including a SWAT team served a search warrant at the home of YouTube
star Jake Paul on Wednesday.
The FBI executed the search warrant starting at 6
a.m. at the Calabasas, California, mansion in connection with an ongoing
investigation, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a statement.
A judge has sealed the search-warrant affidavit and
Eimiller said she could not reveal the nature of the investigation or the
person it was served on.
Paul’s attorney Richard Schonfeld confirmed the home
was his.
“We understand that a search warrant was executed at
Jake’s Calabasas home this morning while Jake was out-of-state,” Schonfeld said
in an email. “We are still gathering information and will cooperate with the
investigation.”
Video from local television news helicopters showed
agents gathering several rifles from the sprawling property with a boxing ring
and hot tub in the backyard that appears in many of Paul’s recent YouTube
videos.
A SWAT team initially entered the property, Eimiller
said. No arrests were made.
Police in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Wednesday said
they were dismissing charges of criminal trespassing and unlawful assembly
there against Paul and two others “so that a federal criminal investigation can
be completed,” but that they may be refiled later.
Paul had been charged there when he appeared on
video in June inside a Scottsdale mall that a big crowd of people had broken
into, looting stores.
Paul said in a subsequent YouTube video that he had
only been looking for people protesting the death of George Floyd, and he did
not take part in any of the destruction.
Paul, 23, has over 20 million followers on his YouTube channel, which features stunts, pranks, stories from his personal life, and more recently music videos
–AP