text: (CNN) Michael Cohen, the longtime personal attorney for President Donald Trump, filed court papers Wednesday indicating he would assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination regarding his involvement in a hush money deal involving porn star Stormy Daniels and the President. 
   
   Cohen cited FBI raids of his residence, office and hotel room and the seizure of "various electronic devices and documents in my possession," in his filing in US District Court in Los Angeles. 
   
   "Based upon the advice of counsel, I will assert my Fifth Amendment rights in connection with all proceedings in this case due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI and US Attorney for the Southern District of New York," Cohen said. 
   
   Cohen filed the declaration as part of an effort to have a civil lawsuit filed by Daniels put on hold. The judge in that case said last week that he needed to hear from Cohen directly before deciding on that request. 
   
   Michael Avenatti, Daniels' attorney, called Cohen's declaration "a stunning development." 
   
   Read More ||||| This is a stunning development. Never before in our nation’s history has the attorney for the sitting President invoked the 5th Amend in connection with issues surrounding the President. It is esp. stunning seeing as MC served as the “fixer” for Mr. Trump for over 10 yrs. # basta ||||| Stormy Daniels’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said on Wednesday that the decision by Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in Daniels’s lawsuit against him was “stunning.” 
   
   “This is a stunning development. Never before in our nation’s history has the attorney for the sitting President invoked the 5th Amend in connection with issues surrounding the President,” Avenatti wrote on Twitter. 
   
   This is a stunning development. Never before in our nation’s history has the attorney for the sitting President invoked the 5th Amend in connection with issues surrounding the President. It is esp. stunning seeing as MC served as the “fixer” for Mr. Trump for over 10 yrs. #basta — Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 25, 2018 
   
   Avenatti, who earlier this month predicted that Cohen would plead the Fifth, said Cohen’s action was especially stunning given that he had served as the president’s “fixer” for more than 10 years. 
   
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   “Based on the advice of counsel, I will assert my 5th amendment rights in connection with all proceedings in this case due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York,” Cohen said in a court filing Wednesday. 
   
   Cohen said he decided to plead the Fifth based on the FBI raid of his office and hotel room earlier this month and the criminal probe the raid was a part of. 
   
   During the 2016 presidential election, Trump said pleading the Fifth Amendment was a sign that someone wasn't innocent. 
   
   Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing Cohen for defamation over his suggestion that Daniels lied about her alleged affair with Trump. 
   
   Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement weeks before the election that, Daniels says, was meant to silence her about the reported affair.
target: – In what Stormy Daniels' lawyer called a "stunning development," President Trump's personal lawyer said Wednesday that he plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in the adult film star's lawsuit against him. Michael Cohen, citing government raids on his home and offices, filed papers saying he plans to plead the Fifth in connection with the civil lawsuit "due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI and US Attorney for the Southern District of New York," CNN reports. Daniels is suing Cohen for defamation for accusing her of lying about her alleged affair with Trump, reports the Hill. She is also seeking to void a deal in which Cohen paid her $130,000 to stay quiet about the alleged affair. Michael Avenatti, Daniels' attorney, says the move is especially stunning because Cohen was Trump's "fixer" for more than a decade. "Never before in our nation’s history has the attorney for the sitting President invoked the 5th Amend in connection with issues surrounding the President," he tweeted. He also tweeted a link to a Washington Post story that noted Trump slammed Hillary Clinton staffers in 2016 for invoking the Fifth during the investigation of her email server—but invoked the amendment himself during his 1990 divorce from Ivana Trump, dodging no fewer than 97 deposition questions, mostly about other women. (Avenatti has filed a motion to depose Trump.)