av MICHAEL WOLFF i SIEGE 31 ine end of the year, Trump was casually mocking his chief of staff and ) Trump had warned them not to go down. Mueller, careful to protect his his p enchant for efficiency and strict procedures. Indeed, both men were own flank, took pains to reassure the president's lawyers that he wasn’t foo trashing each other, quite Seaoiaed of the large audience for | pursuing the president's business interests; at the same time, he was pass- : eir s a. eae Trump, Kelly was a “twitcher” and “feeble” and ready to ing the evidence his investigation had gathered about Trump's business stroke out.” F oF Kelly, Trump was “deranged” and “mad” and “stupid” and personal affairs to other federal prosecutors. The drama just got weirder. On April 9, the FBI, on instructions from federal prosecutors in New conn rere Hey, = aia four-star general, grabbed Trump adviser York, raided the home and office of Michael Cohen, as well as a room he y —_ owski outside the Oval Office and pushed him up against a was using in the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue. Cohen, who billed him- wall D ont oe id in the eye,” whispered Trump about Kelly after the self as Trump’s personal lawyer, sat handcuffed for hours in his kitchen meen circling his finger next to es head in the crazy sign. The con- while the FBI conducted its search, itemizing and hauling away every rontation left everybody shaken, with Trump asking Lewandowski not electronic device its agents could find. to ual anyone, and Lewandowski, when talking to the people he did tell, Bannon, coincidentally, also stayed at the Regency on his frequent saying that he had almost wet himself. trips to New York, and he would sometimes bump into Cohen in the By March, Trump and Kelly were hardly speaking. Trump ignored hotel’s lobby. Bannon had known Cohen during the campaign, and the i. Kelly sulked. Or Trump would drop pointed hints that Kelly should | lawyer’s mysterious involvement in campaign issues often worried him. tad le ane K