FBI agents searched the home of YouTube celebrity Jake Paul, seizing multiple firearms scattered around his Calabasas, California property. The raid was said to be in response to Paul’s alleged involvement in a riot at an Arizona shopping mall back in late May, which he later denied.
As per ABC7, the raid happened early Wednesday, with federal agents serving him a search warrant and ultimately confiscating weapons, including a “long gun propped up against a hot tub in the backyard.”
The inciting incident occurred during the infancy of the Black Lives Matter protests that continue to this day, when Paul and his videographer Andrew Blue posted footage of looters at a mall in Scottsdale, Arizona. Paul denied that he and Blue were partaking in the looting themselves, claiming they were simply documenting it. In early June, Paul was charged with criminal trespassing and unlawful assembly. Those charges were later dismissed.
The FBI raid comes two weeks after Paul was blasted for hosting a raucous party at his mansion, videos of which revealed revelers without masks and not social distancing. The event went viral, and it enraged residents as well as Calabasas mayor Alice Weintraub, who took umbrage with the celebrity for doing so as COVID-19 cases were spiking in the state.
(Via ABC7)