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FBI raids ex-national security adviser John Bolton’s home in classified documents probe: ‘NO ONE is above the law’
https://nypost.com/2025/08/22/us-ne...home-in-high-profile-national-security-probe/
{Caitlin Doornbos | 22 August 2025}
FBI agents raided the Maryland home and Washington, DC office of President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton Friday morning in a high-profile national security probe involving classified documents.
Federal agents went to Bolton’s house in Bethesda, Md., at 7 a.m. in an investigation ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump administration official told The Post. They later went to Bolton’s office, but did not enter until a judge signed a warrant for that location late Friday morning.
“NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission,” Patel said in a cryptic post to X shortly after the raid began.
Bolton has not been arrested and is not currently charged with any crimes, the official added.
“He’s not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic guy,” President Trump told reporters of Bolton Friday morning. “We’re going to find out.”
The raid came at the behest of Patel, with the president claiming that he had no advance knowledge of the operation.
“I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning … I tell [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] and I tell the group: ‘I don’t want to know, but you have to do what you have to do. I don’t want to know about it.’”
“I could know about it. I could be the one starting — and I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer — but I feel that it’s better this way.”
It is not unusual for a president not to have been informed ahead of an FBI raid. Traditionally, the Justice Department has worked independently of the White House — especially on matters potentially tied to domestic politics. For example, former President Joe Biden said he was not given a heads-up about an August 2022 FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to recover national security papers sought by the National Archives.
Trump’s first Justice Department initiated a criminal inquiry into Bolton’s alleged disclosure of national secrets in his 2020 book, “The Room Where It Happened.” The Biden administration later shut that probe down “for political reasons,” according to a senior US official.
Officials tell The Post that the current investigation has grown beyond Bolton’s book into a “larger classified leaking probe that extended into the Biden administration.”
Sources say examples of disclosures that could be scrutinized include passing information to foreign clients or media outlets.
An investigation of Bolton was launched in 2020, but the Biden administration shut it down “for political reasons,” according to a senior US official.
Trump’s first Justice Department initiated a criminal inquiry into Bolton’s alleged disclosure of national secrets in his 2020 book, “The Room Where It Happened.”
However, officials tell The Post that the current investigation is not limited to Bolton’s book — but is part of a “larger classified leaking probe that extended into the Biden administration.”
Trump, 79, unsuccessfully fought to quash publication of “The Room Where It Happened” over its inclusion of national secrets — saying Bolton broke a non-disclosure agreement signed as a condition of his employment.
Investigators suspect that former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department shut down of the Bolton probe may have been motivated by the ex-nat sec adviser’s political opposition to Trump.
Bolton has been at odds with his old boss since Trump fired him in September 2019, regularly appearing on CNN and criticizing the president’s national security and foreign policy aims.
After Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he quickly terminated Bolton’s security clearance and Secret Service detail.
The latter move prompted concerns for the ex-adviser’s safety, with Iran identifying Bolton as an assassination target in retribution for his role in the January 2020 drone strike that took out Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Bolton, 76, has also been a vocal advocate of regime change in Iran throughout his diplomatic career.
Bolton’s X account blasted out a message at 7:32 a.m. criticizing Trump’s approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine as FBI agents were inside his home. It was unclear whether it was a scheduled post.
“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,” he wrote.
“Meanwhile, meetings will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, but I don’t see these talks making any progress.”
The Bolton raid comes one day after Patel revealed former FBI Director James Comey had authorized leaks of classified documents “while misleading Congress” just before the 2016 elections.
Patel has pledged to rid the federal government of corruption and expose cover-ups, especially related to the FBI’s investigation of collusion between the Kremlin and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
https://nypost.com/2025/08/22/us-ne...home-in-high-profile-national-security-probe/
{Caitlin Doornbos | 22 August 2025}
FBI agents raided the Maryland home and Washington, DC office of President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton Friday morning in a high-profile national security probe involving classified documents.
Federal agents went to Bolton’s house in Bethesda, Md., at 7 a.m. in an investigation ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump administration official told The Post. They later went to Bolton’s office, but did not enter until a judge signed a warrant for that location late Friday morning.
“NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission,” Patel said in a cryptic post to X shortly after the raid began.
Bolton has not been arrested and is not currently charged with any crimes, the official added.
“He’s not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic guy,” President Trump told reporters of Bolton Friday morning. “We’re going to find out.”
The raid came at the behest of Patel, with the president claiming that he had no advance knowledge of the operation.
“I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning … I tell [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] and I tell the group: ‘I don’t want to know, but you have to do what you have to do. I don’t want to know about it.’”
“I could know about it. I could be the one starting — and I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer — but I feel that it’s better this way.”
It is not unusual for a president not to have been informed ahead of an FBI raid. Traditionally, the Justice Department has worked independently of the White House — especially on matters potentially tied to domestic politics. For example, former President Joe Biden said he was not given a heads-up about an August 2022 FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to recover national security papers sought by the National Archives.
Trump’s first Justice Department initiated a criminal inquiry into Bolton’s alleged disclosure of national secrets in his 2020 book, “The Room Where It Happened.” The Biden administration later shut that probe down “for political reasons,” according to a senior US official.
Officials tell The Post that the current investigation has grown beyond Bolton’s book into a “larger classified leaking probe that extended into the Biden administration.”
Sources say examples of disclosures that could be scrutinized include passing information to foreign clients or media outlets.
An investigation of Bolton was launched in 2020, but the Biden administration shut it down “for political reasons,” according to a senior US official.
Trump’s first Justice Department initiated a criminal inquiry into Bolton’s alleged disclosure of national secrets in his 2020 book, “The Room Where It Happened.”
However, officials tell The Post that the current investigation is not limited to Bolton’s book — but is part of a “larger classified leaking probe that extended into the Biden administration.”
Trump, 79, unsuccessfully fought to quash publication of “The Room Where It Happened” over its inclusion of national secrets — saying Bolton broke a non-disclosure agreement signed as a condition of his employment.
Investigators suspect that former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department shut down of the Bolton probe may have been motivated by the ex-nat sec adviser’s political opposition to Trump.
Bolton has been at odds with his old boss since Trump fired him in September 2019, regularly appearing on CNN and criticizing the president’s national security and foreign policy aims.
After Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he quickly terminated Bolton’s security clearance and Secret Service detail.
The latter move prompted concerns for the ex-adviser’s safety, with Iran identifying Bolton as an assassination target in retribution for his role in the January 2020 drone strike that took out Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Bolton, 76, has also been a vocal advocate of regime change in Iran throughout his diplomatic career.
Bolton’s X account blasted out a message at 7:32 a.m. criticizing Trump’s approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine as FBI agents were inside his home. It was unclear whether it was a scheduled post.
“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,” he wrote.
“Meanwhile, meetings will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, but I don’t see these talks making any progress.”
The Bolton raid comes one day after Patel revealed former FBI Director James Comey had authorized leaks of classified documents “while misleading Congress” just before the 2016 elections.
Patel has pledged to rid the federal government of corruption and expose cover-ups, especially related to the FBI’s investigation of collusion between the Kremlin and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
