Federal agents on Friday conducted searches at the Maryland home and Washington office of John Bolton, the who publicly disagreed with President Donald Trump during his first term in office, as part of a Justice Department inquiry into the management of classified information, according to multiple media reports.
These court-authorized searches signify a considerable escalation in the Trump Administration’s actions against one of the president’s most vocal critics from his own political party. Bolton, who served 17 months in the White House before being , was neither apprehended nor formally accused, the reports detailed.
The current investigation places Bolton on a growing roster of Trump’s political adversaries targeted by the Justice Department since the President recommenced his term in January. In recent months, federal prosecutors have initiated probes into New York Attorney General Letitia James, who pursued civil fraud claims against Trump’s enterprise; Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California and a key figure in Trump’s initial impeachment; and former FBI director James Comey. All individuals involved have denied any wrongdoing.
The Justice Department has declined to make public statements regarding the search, but its leadership appeared to hint at the operation through social media posts. FBI Director Kash Patel : “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.” Attorney General Pam Bondi then reposted this message, , “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”
The precise focus of the Bolton investigation remains unclear, though it is thought to pertain to a potential mishandling or unauthorized retention of national security intelligence. Trump had previously threatened to imprison Bolton over his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, which portrayed Trump as poorly informed on international policy and primarily driven by personal political gain. The Justice Department under Attorney General William P. Barr attempted to obstruct the book’s release, alleging it contained classified data, but career officials had already approved the manuscript, and the case was dropped by the Biden Administration in 2021.
Trump has frequently assailed his former adviser, disparaging him as a “warmonger” who could have steered the nation into “World War Six.” On his inaugural day back in the Oval Office in January, Trump revoked security clearances for over four dozen former intelligence officials, with Bolton among them. Trump also canceled Bolton’s Secret Service protection, despite the Justice Department having stated that he was the target of an alleged murder-for-hire plot by an individual affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Bolton also held the position of United Nations ambassador under President George W. Bush and served in various capacities during President Ronald Reagan’s administration. As national security adviser, he frequently found himself in disagreement with Trump concerning Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea.
Earlier this month, Trump expressed grievances that the media was “constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton.”
In an this month, Bolton characterized the current administration as “a retribution presidency,” asserting that Trump had “already come after” him by stripping away his security detail.
In 2023, the Biden Justice Department indicted Trump for , alleging that Trump violated the law by taking classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving office in January 2021, displaying a Pentagon “plan of attack” and a classified map, and impeding government efforts to retrieve these documents. Last year, Jack Smith, who was the Department of Justice Special Counsel at the time, moved to dismiss these charges following Trump’s reelection.