On Friday, the FBI raided the Maryland home and Washington D.C. office of former Trump National Security Adviser and subsequent critic of the president, John Bolton. A longtime neo-con war hawk, Bolton served as Trump’s third national security advisor for 17 months during his first term. Bolton clashed with Trump over Iran and North Korea and was fired in 2019.
Previously, Bolton served as US ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration and held positions in the Reagan administration.
Trump’s Justice Department filed suit against Bolton in 2019 seeking to block publication of his tell-all memoir, released in 2020 and titled The Room Where It Happened. The suit claimed Bolton illegally published classified information in his book. The suit languished and was dropped in 2021 during the Biden administration.
The Justice Department refused to comment on the FBI raid, but press reports said it was linked to a criminal investigation of Bolton’s handling of classified information both in his book and over subsequent years.
In fact, the raid, carried out in broad daylight, with news footage showing FBI agents carrying sacks of documents from Bolton’s home and office, marked a major escalation in Trump’s targeting of political critics for retribution by the state. This crackdown and intimidation of political opponents is a critical aspect of Trump’s erection of a presidential dictatorship and police state.
It takes place in the context of Trump’s military occupation of Washington D.C. and takeover of the local police, which have been expanded to include some 2,000 National Guard troops, who will soon be patrolling the city carrying weapons. Also on Thursday, Trump announced that the next city to be occupied by National Guard troops will be Chicago, to be followed by other Democratic-run cities. This constitutes the progressive imposition of de facto martial law.
The Washington Post wrote:
Outside Bolton’s Montgomery County, Maryland, home, early Friday, police cars with flashing lights blocked off the street leading to the residence. Agents were on scene for more than an hour.
“The FBI is conducting court authorized activity in the area. There is no threat to public safety. We have no further comment,” an FBI spokesperson said in a statement.
Later in the morning, a handful of agents with FBI insignia were seen entering the downtown Washington office building on M Street where Bolton rents space.
Neither Bolton nor his lawyer issued a statement following the FBI raid.
While Attorney General Pam Bondi ignored press requests for a statement on the raid, social media posts by FBI Director Kash Patel and herself referred indirectly to the action. Patel wrote: “No one is above the law … FBI agents on a mission.” Bondi shared Patel’s post and added, “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”
In his 2023 book Government Gangsters, Patel appended an enemies list of 60 people who, he contended, were corrupt operators in the “deep state.” Bolton was on the list.
Early in his second term, Trump removed the security clearance for Bolton and dozens of other officials who were either critical of his policies or had been involved in investigations of Trump or Trump’s January 6 attempted coup.
Trump soon after removed Bolton’s security detail. This was despite official reports that Bolton had been targeted by Iran for assassination.
In the lead-up to the raid, Bolton, a frequent commentator on cable news programs, had been sharply critical of Trump’s decision to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, calling it a capitulation to Russia. Earlier in the year he denounced members of the Trump administration for using a Signal group chat rather than secure government channels to discuss imminent military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
The criminal investigation and FBI raid against Bolton are part of a broader attack by Trump and the Justice Department against Trump’s political opponents. Last month, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, publicly accused former President Barack Obama of “treason” for having launched an investigation into allegations of Russian interference into the 2016 election to harm the campaign of Hillary Clinton and boost that of Trump. Gabbard released a previously classified 2020 report by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee and issued a criminal referral to the Justice Department to investigate Obama.
The Justice Department is separately conducting mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company. Also under criminal investigation is former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who laid charges against Trump for his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election and his removal and retention of presidential records, including highly classified materials, from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office.
The latter case was dismissed in 2022 by pro-Trump Judge Aileen Cannon, and Smith dropped the 2020 election case after the Supreme Court in July of 2024 granted Trump immunity from criminal prosecution.