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“FBI agents searched the home of John Bolton, a former adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump turned persistent critic, on Friday in what a source familiar with the matter said was part of a national security probe. The investigation is focused on the potential criminal release of classified information, the source added…
“The Justice Department during Trump's first term sued Bolton and started a criminal investigation into him over allegations his 2020 book, ‘The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,’ contained classified information. The book painted a scathing picture of Trump's first administration. A judge rejected the administration's bid to block publication of the book in 2020. Both the criminal investigation and lawsuit were dropped in 2021 during the Biden administration…
“When asked about the raid, Trump said on Friday, ‘No, I don't know about it. I saw it on television this morning. I'm not a fan of John Bolton. He's a real sort of a low life. He could be a very unpatriotic guy. We're going to find out.’” Reuters
The left criticizes the searches, arguing that they were politically motivated.
“According to the F.B.I., the search it executed was court-authorized. That means an F.B.I. agent would have had to submit an affidavit, under oath, that there was probable cause… These judicial checks, by a separate and impartial branch, should ordinarily create a presumption of regularity that the rule of law is being followed. But these are not regular times. It’s no secret that President Trump is ‘not a fan’ of Mr. Bolton, as he reminded the country on Friday…
“Kash Patel, now head of the F.B.I., [included] Mr. Bolton on a list of 60 so-called deep-state names in the appendix of his book, ‘Government Gangsters.’ Soon after taking office this January, Mr. Trump terminated Mr. Bolton’s security detail, despite the fact that Iran had made threats on Mr. Bolton’s life and an Iranian was charged in 2022 in a plot to assassinate him. All of this has left the public with reasonable concerns that the justice system is being weaponized to seek personal retribution on behalf of the president.”
Asha Rangappa, New York Times
“After last week’s Ukraine summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bolton accused Trump of one of the worst sins one can commit in Trump land: being low-energy. He told CNN that Trump ‘looked very tired up there,’ and said one should ‘reflect on what that means.’ Reflection is certainly in order, on the topic of what it means that Patel is investigating a former Trump official just as that defector is getting more mordant in his criticisms of his former boss. The pledge to ‘de-weaponize’ the FBI would be more credible from a less vindictive administration.”
Graeme Wood, The Atlantic
“It is possible none of these investigations will result in a criminal charge. Still, they can do great harm to their targets. The cost of mounting a defense can be ruinous, and in some cases the reputational damage can be impossible to fix. Whatever the outcome, they instill fear in anyone who might consider challenging the president, and they erode trust in the justice system…
“Mr. Trump seems convinced that he is doing nothing to his rivals that was not done to him in earlier prosecutions and lawsuits. That is untrue. There is little comparison between the substantial evidence amassed in his cases — in particular, that he tried to break the nation’s election laws in 2020 and refused to return classified White House documents — and the frequent lack of evidence lobbed at his adversaries.”
Editorial Board, New York Times
The right is divided.
The right is divided.
“Today’s raid would have been authorized by a federal judge’s signature on a search warrant. But we now need more information on why the investigation was dropped by the Biden administration. Was it as a political favor to Bolton over his criticism of Trump? Or was it because Justice Department attorneys in the national security division believed there was insufficient evidence to bring charges? If it is the latter possibility, then we must ask what changed between then and now.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
“It’s hard to see the raid as anything other than vindictive. Mr. Bolton fell out of Mr. Trump’s favor in the first term and then wrote a book about his experience in the White House while Mr. Trump was still President. Mr. Trump tried and failed to block publication. The President then claimed Mr. Bolton had exposed classified information, though the book had gone through an extensive pre-publication scrub at the White House for classified material…
“It’s unlikely that Mr. Bolton broke any laws on national secrets, and he certainly didn’t share any with us over our long association with him. But perhaps Mr. Trump intends for the process itself to be the punishment even if there is ultimately no criminal charge. Mr. Bolton has to pay for legal counsel, and his family has to endure the anxiety of being under federal government siege.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
Others argue, “The hypocrisy couldn’t be more glaring. When the Biden Department of Justice ordered an unprecedented raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Never Trumpers and their media allies cheered it. But now that one of their Beltway darlings underwent an FBI search, it’s suddenly ‘authoritarianism’ and ‘chilling’…
“Former NBC host Chuck Todd said on X: ‘The senators who were bullied into confirming Kash Patel, how are you feeling today? It’s not like you weren’t warned that this guy would be comfortable politicizing the agency. Trump couldn’t have done this without the weak senate GOP enabling.’…
“Todd is the same person who, after the raid of Mar-a-Lago, said Republicans unifying around Trump were merely ‘under[cutting] faith in institutions.’ Todd (along with three other NBC writers), told readers to ‘remember’ that the FBI would only conduct a search with a ‘warrant’ showing ‘probable cause’ and therefore, Republicans should have preached ‘calm, or even measured caution’ instead of reacting to the raid.”
Brianna Lyman, The Federalist
