The FBI raided the home of the former national security advisor, John R. Bolton, early Friday in search of classified documents related to his 2020 memoir detailing his tenure in the first Trump administration.
The raid, ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, is being described as a resumption of a “national security probe” that was launched in 2020 shortly after the publication of Mr. Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” but later dropped under the Biden administration.
“This is a national security case that was closed by the Biden Administration. Kash reopened it, and Kash reignited it,” an FBI official tells the Sun.
FBI agents appeared at Mr. Bolton’s house in Bethesda, Maryland at 7 a.m. Friday.
“NO ONE is above the law … FBI agents on mission,” Mr. Patel posted on X minutes after FBI agents arrived at Mr. Bolton’s home.
“Public corruption will not be tolerated,” the FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, wrote on X.
Mr. Bolton, who served as national security advisor to President Trump from 2018 to 2019, has rankled his former boss with comments on his August 15 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
“Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won,” Mr. Bolton told CNN shortly afterward.
In his 2020 memoir, Mr. Bolton did not hold back criticism of Mr. Trump’s handling of foreign policy during his first administration, writing in his foreword that Mr. Trump “is unfit to be President.”
The book was a #1 New York Times bestseller and was one of the most successful Trump tell-alls, selling 780,000 copies in its first week alone. In the book, Mr. Bolton was withering about Mr. Trump, describing the president as a gullible figure easily manipulated with flattery by other foreign leaders. The book, as well as Mr. Bolton’s television appearances promoting the book, enraged Mr. Trump.
More recently, Mr. Bolton has appeared on CNN to criticize Mr. Trump’s handling of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Around the time FBI agents arrived at his door Friday, Mr. Bolton continued to criticize Mr. Trump, writing on X that the President “wants a Nobel Peace Prize.”
“Russia has not changed its goal: drag Ukraine into a new Russian Empire. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede territory it already holds and the remainder of Donetsk, which it has been unable to conquer. Zelensky will never do so. Meanwhile, meetings will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, but I don’t see these talks making any progress,” Mr. Bolton continued.
The Trump administration launched a criminal investigation into Mr. Bolton shortly after the 2020 publication of “The Room Where It Happened” over allegations he had retained and divulged classified material.
Mr. Trump had unsuccessfully sued to stop the book’s publication over charges he was divulging classified information, which Mr. Bolton denied.
Mr. Bolton was the target of an assassination plot orchestrated by Iran, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Mr. Trump pulled Mr. Bolton’s Secret Service detail – which he’d retained after he left government due to the death threats – when Mr. Trump returned to power in 2025. Mr. Trump said Mr. Bolton could afford his own security.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
