FBI conducts search at John Bolton’s home

(CNN) — The FBI conducted a court-authorized search at John Bolton’s home as part of a national security investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter.

CNN observed FBI personnel at the former US national security adviser’s house in the Washington, DC, area. They were seen speaking to a person on the porch of the house, and at least four to six agents were seen going inside.

Some of the agents took bags out of the vehicles to bring inside, but nothing has been seen coming out of the residence.

Reached by CNN, Bolton said he was unaware of the FBI activity and was looking into it further.

The search was first reported by the New York Post on Friday. In a post on social media, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote that agents were “on mission,” but it was unclear if he was referring to the search.

“NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission,” Patel wrote. The FBI declined to comment on the search.

The probe is related to the possible retention of national security information, according to the person familiar with the investigation. Bolton last served in government in 2019 when President Donald Trump fired him during his first administration.

Trump has repeatedly gone after his former national security adviser while in office, including most recently saying this month that the media was “constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton.”

The president terminated Bolton’s Secret Service detail within hours of starting his second term in January.

During his first term, the president threatened to jail Bolton after he published a book in 2020 in which he claimed Trump was woefully under-informed on matters of foreign policy and obsessed with shaping his media legacy. The book also reported that Trump asked the leaders of Ukraine and China to help him win the 2020 election.

It’s not clear whether the current probe is related to the same book dispute or involves other material.

The book included material that initially was cleared for publication by career officials at the White House, but Trump political appointees sought to overturn that approval.

The Justice Department investigated Bolton over the possibility that he “unlawfully disclosed classified information” in his memoir, though officials under former President Joe Biden closed the investigation and dropped a related lawsuit connected to the publication of the book in 2021.

Trump and his government have carried out a campaign of retribution in recent months against a wide swath of the president’s perceived political enemies, ranging from former Trump officials to members of Congress to the prosecutors who brought cases against Trump while he was out of office.

Last week, Patel declassified and released internal FBI interview notes from a former House Intelligence Committee staffer who first accused former Rep. Adam Schiff in 2017 of directing illegal leaks of classified information about Trump and Russia, in an escalation of Trump’s long-standing feud with Schiff.

The Justice Department also opened a grand jury investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James this month over the civil actions she brought against Trump and the National Rifle Association.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

About The Author

See author's posts