The search of former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton’s home and office is raising questions about whether the White House is flexing its law enforcement muscle to go after a frequent critic.
It also parallels an event that the president and his circle have highly criticized: the search for classified records at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Bolton has become a fierce critic of President Trump since exiting the White House in September 2019 as national security adviser. He penned a book in 2020, titled “The Room Where It Happened,” that portrayed Trump as an erratic and uninformed leader.
The Trump administration went to court in an effort to block its publication. It also ignited a criminal probe of Bolton. Both the court case and the criminal probe were dropped several months into the Biden administration.
Those dynamics left various figures thinking politics were at play in the administration’s decision to go after Bolton.
“We’re looking at this a little bit skeptically,” Chris Swecker, an agent for 24 years who served as an assistant director of the FBI under George W. Bush, said Friday in comments on Fox News.
Swecker, describing conversations with his colleagues, said he and others were critical of President Biden’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, saying “just because you have the authority and the discretion to do something like this, doesn’t mean you should.”
“We just don’t want to see the FBI weaponized for the other side, if you will, just turning the playbook over,” he added.
To some in Trump’s circle, the motivation is clear.
“That’s why Trump has put in these people at DOJ and FBI because these are all the faithful and the revenge tour is real,” a source close to the White House said.
White House officials have pushed back on the suggestion that they are weaponizing law enforcement against Trump’s critics.
And Trump was adamant that he only learned of the search Friday morning from coverage on television. But he also emphasized he had a right to be involved if he wanted to, and he attacked Bolton as a “sleazebag” and a “low-life.”
“I’m not a fan of John Bolton. I thought he was a sleazebag actually, and he suffers [from] major Trump Derangement System,” Trump said Friday in the Oval Office. “But so do a lot of people, and they’re not being affected by anything we do.”
The Department of Justice and FBI are now led by Trump loyalists who criticized the Biden DOJ’s pursuit of Trump, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.
Bolton is one of dozens of officials who appeared on Patel’s list of members of the so-called deep state at the end of his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters.” Democrats raised concerns during Patel’s confirmation hearing that he would use the agency to target Trump critics and opponents.
“NO ONE is above the law…,” Patel posted on social media Friday just as the Bolton raid was becoming public.
While the FBI has not commented on the nature of the search, it appears Bolton’s book as well as broader concerns over classified records were the basis of the investigation.
Improper retention of classified records carries serious penalties under the Espionage Act, but Democrats and other critics of Trump suggested they believed there was a political motivation to the pursuit of Bolton.
“Look, if Bolton did something wrong, no one’s above the law,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee. He noted, as with the Mar-a-Lago case, an unsealed warrant and the presence of reams of classified documents offered validity to the search.
“But you know, the timing of this is very suspicious, and the fact that DOJ investigated him previously and found nothing to charge him with just tells you that I suspect that they know that even if they don’t have anything, they’re embarrassing him and they’re bringing great cost upon him.”
Many were also quick to note the overlap with Trump’s own Mar-a-Lago case, where the FBI discovered some 300 documents with classified markings in various locations in the Florida estate.
“Trump uses the actual crimes he committed and for which was duly convicted as his inspiration for the fictitious crimes for which he wields vindictive state power against American patriots exercising their rights and doing their jobs,” David Frum, a former GOP speechwriter who is now a critic of Trump, wrote on social platform X.
But some conservatives suggested Democrats and other Trump critics should be careful about jumping to conclusions.
Mike Davis, a Trump ally and head of the conservative Article III Project, posted on X that Democrats and Trump critics would look “silly when the search warrant becomes public.”
“Do you really think the FBI executed a home raid simply because of John Bolton’s book?” Davis posted on X.
Trump’s 2024 campaign was filled with grievances and complaints that the federal government had been weaponized against him after he was indicted in four separate criminal cases, including one over his handling of classified material after leaving office.
While Trump during the campaign downplayed his intent to seek retribution if elected, he and his administration have targeted former government officials who have criticized him, including Bolton, by revoking their security clearances and terminating their security details.
Bolton, who has served in multiple Republican administrations, has been a regular presence on television critiquing Trump on foreign policy in particular, but also on a number of other issues including Trump’s handling of classified information.
Vice President Vance pledged the investigation into Bolton would be “deliberate” and follow the facts of the case.
“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,” Vance told “Meet the Press” on Friday.
But his comments were still a departure from past White House precedent, where officials are reticent to have any connection or insight into ongoing Justice Department investigations.
“‘We’?? JD Vance (and the WH) are clearly involved in — and likely directing — the DOJ investigation of Trump nemesis John Bolton,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) wrote on X.
“Why are there no congressional Republicans willing to speak up against this corrupt use of the criminal justice system to go after Trump’s enemies?”
Alex Gangitano contributed to this story.
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