By Andrew Dalton

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.

The City of Calabasas said in a statement on its social media pages that it was Paul's home that was being raided by the FBI, which was using the city hall parking lot as a staging area.

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.

Email messages left with representatives for Paul seeking comment on the raid were not immediately returned.

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.

He rose to fame on the short video app Vine and spent two years as an actor on the Disney Channel show Bizaardvark.

His older brother, Logan Paul, has a similar YouTube channel with even more followers.

Neighbors have complained to media outlets for several years about the stunts Jake Paul has pulled on the property for his YouTube channel.

Last month, Calabasas Mayor Alicia Weintraub harshly criticized him after video emerged of dozens of people at a party at his home amid the coronavirus outbreak, with no apparent masks or social distancing.

In June, he was charged with criminal trespassing and unlawful assembly by police in Scottsdale, Arizona when he appeared on video inside a 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 did not take part in any of the destruction.

Share:
More In Culture
Northeast Recovering From Weekend Snow Storm
A powerful winter storm hit the Northeast over the weekend leaving 100,000 New Yorkers in the dark as well as snowfall up to 30.9 inches in parts of Massachusetts. The nor'easter hit with blizzard conditions of wind speed and poor visibility.
Unpacking the Neil Young vs. Joe Rogan Vaccine Misinformation PR Crisis on Spotify
After classic rocker Neil Young demanded removal of his music from Spotify over vaccine misinformation coming from The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the platform made the decision to take down Young's songs and continue supporting Rogan with whom they have an exclusive contract. The move touched off a firestorm of controversy, leading to responses from both the streaming service and the podcasting host. Evan Nierman, CEO of Red Banyan Crisis PR, joined Cheddar to break down the latest on the fracas. "I think when [Spotify] initially said, we're not going to be commenting on that, that was a silly move because guess what? They did end up commenting about it, and nine times out of 10, when an organization says they're not going to be issuing a comment, they ultimately do," Nierman noted.
China's Censorship of Hollywood
The 1999 cult classic "Fight Club" has been given a very different ending in China — and this time, the authorities win. Cheddar News speaks with Joan Solsman, senior media reporter at CNET who breaks down how China is using films for political messaging.
NFT Art Platform TRLab Raises $4.2 Million to Bridge Gap Between Traditional and Digital Art
NFT art platform TRLab recently raised $4.2 million in funding. TRLab launched just last year but says its platform focused on NFT curation and distribution is growing quickly. The company hopes to bridge traditional and digital art worlds and help artists explore NFTs as an emerging medium. TRLab co-founder and chairwoman Xin Li-Cohen and co-founder and CEO Audrey Ou joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Load More