WASHINGTON: The FBI on Friday searched the Maryland home and Washington office of former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton as part of a criminal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, a person familiar with the matter said.
Bolton, who emerged as an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump after being fired in 2019 and feuded with the first Trump administration over a scathing book he wrote documenting his time in the White House, was not in custody Friday and has not been charged with any crimes, said the person who was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The searches, seemingly the most significant public step the Justice Department has taken against a perceived enemy of the president, are likely to elicit fresh alarm that the Trump administration is using its law enforcement powers to target the Republicanâs foes. They come as the Trump administration has moved to examine the activities of other critics, including by authorizing a grand jury investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe that dogged Trump for much of his first term, and as FBI and Justice Department leaders signal their loyalty to the president.
They also unfolded against the backdrop of a 2022 search for classified documents at Trumpâs Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, an action that produced since-dismissed criminal charges but remains the source of outrage for the president and supporters who insist he was unjustly targeted despite the retrieval of top-secret records. Current FBI Director Kash Patel, who included Bolton on a list of âmembers of the Executive Branch Deep Stateâ in a 2023 book, said in a Fox News Channel interview this week that the Mar-a-Lago search represented a âtotal weaponization and politicizationâ of the bureau.
Speaking to reporters during an unscheduled visit to the White House Historical Association, Trump said he had seen news coverage of Fridayâs searches and expected to be briefed about it by the Justice Department but also insisted he didnât âwant to know about it.â
âI could know about it. I could be the one starting it. Iâm actually the chief law enforcement officer. But I feel that itâs better this way,â Trump said.
Bolton had said in interviews in the last few months that he was mindful that he could scrutinized, telling the AP in January shortly before Trump took office, âAnybody who ever disagrees with Trump has to worry about retribution. Itâs a pretty long list.â
âItâs been a long time since people used to talk about Richard Nixonâs enemies list. But that seems to be Trumpâs approach. And so itâs uncharted territory in many respects,â Bolton said.
Bolton was in his office building at the time
Bolton was not home for the search of his home, but after it started, he was spotted Friday morning standing in the lobby of the Washington building where he keeps an office and talking to two people with âFBIâ visible on their vests. He left a few minutes later and appeared to have gone upstairs in the building. Agents were seen taking bags into the office building through a back entrance.
Messages left with a spokesperson for Bolton were not immediately returned, and a lawyer who has represented Bolton had no immediate comment.
The Justice Department had no comment, but leaders appeared to cryptically refer to the search of Boltonâs home in a series of social media posts Friday morning.
Patel posted on X: âNO ONE is above the law⊠@FBI agents on mission.â Attorney General Pam Bondi shared his post, adding: âAmericaâs safety isnât negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.â
The Justice Department is separately conducting mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company, and ex-Trump prosecutor Jack Smith faces an investigation from an independent watchdog office. Schiff and James have vigorously denied any wrongdoing through their lawyers.
Trump and Bolton have been at odds for years
Bolton served as Trumpâs third national security adviser for 17 months and clashed with him over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.
He faced scrutiny during the first Trump administration over a book he wrote about his time in government that officials argued disclosed classified information. To make its case, the Justice Department in 2020 submitted sworn statements from senior White House officials, including then-National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone, asserting that Boltonâs manuscript included classified information that could harm national security if exposed.
Boltonâs lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked for months, said the manuscript no longer contained classified information.
The Justice Department in 2021 abandoned its lawsuit and dropped a separate grand jury investigation, with Boltonâs lawyer calling the effort to block the book âpolitically motivatedâ and illegitimate.
Boltonâs harshly critical book, âThe Room Where It Happened,â portrayed Trump as grossly ill-informed about foreign policy and said he âsaw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government.â
Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a âcrazyâ war-monger who would have led the country into âWorld War Six.â
Bolton served as US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush and also held positions in President Ronald Reaganâs administration. He considered running for president in 2012 and 2016.
Trump, on his first day back in office this year, revoked the security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials, including Bolton. Bolton was also among a group of former Trump officials whose security details were canceled by Trump earlier this year.
In 2022, an Iranian operative was charged in a plot to kill Bolton in presumed retaliation for a 2020 US airstrike that killed the countryâs most powerful general.
The handling of classified information by top government officials has been a politically loaded topic in recent years. Besides Trump, the Justice Department also investigated whether then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, mishandled classified information after serving as vice president in the Obama administration, and the FBI also recovered what it said were classified documents from the home of former Trump Vice President Mike Pence. Neither man was charged.
FBI searches home and office of ex-Trump national security adviser John Bolton
https://arab.news/gzv3v
FBI searches home and office of ex-Trump national security adviser John Bolton

- Bolton emerged as an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump after being fired in 2019
- Searches come as the Trump administration has moved to examine the activities of other critics