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Bolton raid rocks Washington

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23.08.2025
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FEDERAL AGENTS raided the home of President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton on Friday, provoking concerns from Democrats that one of Trump’s fiercest critics had been targeted for political purposes.

The FBI confirmed a “court-authorized law enforcement activity” took place at Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Md., in the early morning.

FBI agents could be seen bringing boxes into Bolton’s home for the search.

“NO ONE is above the law,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X, without naming Bolton.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on X that “public corruption will not be tolerated.”

The search pertains to the alleged possession of classified documents, NewsNation reports.

Vice President Vance said in an interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker for "Meet the Press" that "classified documents are certainly part of it," in addition to "a broad concern about" about Bolton that investigators are "going to look into."

"If there's no crime here, we're not going to prosecute it. If there is a crime here, of course, Ambassador Bolton will get his day in court," Vance added. "That's how it should be. But again, our focus here is on, did he break the law? Did he commit crimes against the American people? If so, then he deserves to be prosecuted."

Since serving in Trump’s first administration, Bolton has emerged as a high-profile critic of Trump in the media, routinely appearing on cable news outlets to hammer the president’s foreign policy, with a focus on Russia.

Trump on Friday said he had no foreknowledge of the raid.

“They’ll brief me probably today sometime,” the president said.

“I tell [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] and I tell the group I don’t want to know but just you have to do what you have to do,” he added. “I don’t want to know about it. It’s not necessary. I could know about it, I could be the one starting it, I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer, but I feel it’s better this way.”

Trump also unloaded on Bolton, calling him “very unpatriotic.”

Earlier this year, Trump had Bolton’s security clearance and Secret Service protection revoked.

LONGSTANDING TENSIONS BETWEEN TRUMP AND BOLTON

Bolton was investigated during Trump’s first term in office for revelations published in his memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” which the administration said contained classified information.

“He released massive amounts of classified, and confidential, but classified information,” Trump said in a 2020 interview with Fox News Channel’s John Roberts. “That’s illegal and you go to jail for that.”

“He shouldn’t have written a book, OK?” Trump said, adding, “Classified information — he should go to jail for that for many, many years. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and it’s up to the Justice Department, but I can tell you, they’re not happy.”

The Biden administration later dropped the investigation.

Democrats are raising questions about the weaponization of law enforcement.

“The timing of this is chilling,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said on CNN.

“In recent days, after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, Bolton has been publicly criticizing President Trump, saying that Putin is playing him and that he doesn‘t understand the risks of what he‘s doing in engaging with Putin, and Trump has been firing back,” Coons added. “So the timing of this search of Bolton‘s home is particularly chilling.”

Vance denied that politics was at play.

“No, not at all,” Vance told NBC. “And in fact, if we were trying to do that, we would just throw out prosecutions willy-nilly, like the Biden administration DOJ did. Prosecutions that later got thrown out in court."

“We are investigating Ambassador Bolton, but if they ultimately bring a case, it will be because they determine that he has broken the law,” Vance added. “We're going to be careful about that. We're going to be deliberate about that, because we don't think that we should throw people even if they disagree with us politically, maybe especially if they disagree with us politically, you shouldn't throw people willy-nilly in prison. You should let the law drive these determinations, and that's what we're doing.”

Patel and Bongino were fierce critics of the FBI when it raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate for classified documents when former President Biden was in office. Trump was indicted on federal charges at the time, but the case was dismissed after the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Biden was also found to have classified documents at his home, although special counsel Robert Hur declined to bring charges in part because he believed a jury would view Biden as a ”as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

The Hill's Rebecca Beitsch, Filip Timotija and Brett Samuels have five things to know about the raid here.

💡Perspectives:

Jonathan Turley: Letitia James’ crusade against Trump was an abomination.

The Hill: Trump is protecting everyone but Epstein’s survivors.

Read more:

Trump’s civil fraud penalty scrapped: 5 takeaways.

Trump administration launches national security investigation into wind turbine imports.

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