Federal agents searched the home of former national security adviser John Bolton on Friday, targeting one of President Trump\u2019s most outspoken critics.<\/p>\n
The FBI confirmed there was \u201ccourt-authorized law enforcement activity\u201d going on in the area of Bolton\u2019s Maryland home. The search was reportedly related to Bolton\u2019s handling of classified information.<\/p>\n
The move marked an escalation of Trump\u2019s feud with Bolton, and it set off alarms for critics of the president who viewed it as a potential act of retribution against a vocal critic.<\/p>\n
Here are five things to know about the search.<\/p>\n
The probe builds on long-standing accusations by Trump that Bolton may have mishandled classified records, including as he wrote a tell-all book about his time in the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Trump upon taking office for a second time revoked Bolton\u2019s security clearance. It’s a crime even for those with authorized access to remove many sensitive records from their proper setting, something that could run afoul of the Espionage Act.<\/p>\n
Agents were seen coming in and out of both Bolton\u2019s Maryland home as well as his D.C. office with boxes Monday.<\/p>\n
The FBI has declined to comment on the investigation, and Bolton did not return request for comment.<\/p>\n
The former national security adviser, who served in multiple other GOP administrations, published a memoir in 2020 titled \u201cThe Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir\u201d that\u00a0offered a damning portrait<\/a>\u00a0of Trump as \u201cstunningly uninformed\u201d on how to run the government, foreign policy matters and geopolitics.<\/p>\n Trump previously tried to block<\/a> Bolton from publishing the book, claiming a National Security Council review of Bolton\u2019s manuscript determined it contained \u201csignificant amounts of classified information\u201d and violated a nondisclosure agreement he signed when joining the administration.<\/p>\n But in later litigation, a judge declined to block its publication.<\/p>\n Bolton faced criticism in the lead-up to the release of the 2020 book. Judge Royce C. Lamberth declined to block its publication but said that the former ambassador “likely published classified materials\u201d with the sped-up release of the memoir.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States. He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability,\u201d the judge said in 2020. <\/p>\n Bolton argued at the time Trump\u2019s interest in the book wasn\u2019t about protecting intelligence but rather to conceal its deeply negative portrait<\/a> of Trump ahead of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n After Trump lost the 2020 race to former President Biden, the Justice Department dropped both ongoing litigation efforts as well as a criminal probe that the first Trump Justice Department had launched into the book.<\/p>\n Bolton\u2019s attorney, Charles J. Cooper, said\u00a0at the time that by dropping the lawsuit, the government had<\/a> “tacitly acknowledged that President Trump and his White House officials acted illegitimately.\u201d<\/p>\n Bolton served as Trump\u2019s third national security adviser during his first term, a role he held for 17 months before Trump ousted him<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the years since, Bolton has remained one of the most outspoken critics of his old boss. He has weighed in on Trump\u2019s foreign policy<\/a>, his handling of classified documents<\/a> and his rhetoric about U.S. elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n At a time when prominent Trump critics receded into the background or were reluctant to speak out for fear of retribution, Bolton was a regular fixture on cable news programs.<\/p>\nEscalates long-running feud with Trump<\/h2>\n