Federal agents descended on the Maryland home and Washington office of John Bolton, the former national security adviser under President Donald Trump, early Friday morning, August 22, 2025, as part of a sweeping criminal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information. The highly publicized action, confirmed by both eyewitness accounts and official statements, marks one of the most significant steps yet by the Justice Department against a prominent Trump-era figure—and has quickly become a lightning rod for controversy across the political spectrum.
The raid began at 7 a.m. in Bethesda, Maryland, with FBI agents seen carrying boxes into Bolton’s residence. Simultaneously, agents entered his Washington office, where Bolton himself was spotted in the lobby speaking with agents wearing vests marked “FBI.” According to The Associated Press, he left the lobby a few minutes later, appearing to head upstairs as agents brought bags through a back entrance. Notably, Bolton was not taken into custody and, as of Friday evening, had not been charged with any crime.
The operation was ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who has frequently criticized what he calls the “Executive Branch Deep State.” Patel made his stance clear in a cryptic post on X (formerly Twitter) just as the raid began: “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.” Attorney General Pam Bondi echoed this sentiment, sharing Patel’s post and adding, “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.” Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino also chimed in, declaring, “Public corruption will not be tolerated.”
The FBI confirmed that there was “court-authorized law enforcement activity” in the area near Bolton’s home but declined to offer further details. The Justice Department itself refrained from official comment, though leaders appeared to allude to the search in a series of social media posts throughout the day.
President Trump, for his part, told reporters during an unscheduled appearance at the White House Historical Association that he had seen news coverage of the search but claimed he had no prior knowledge of it. “I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning … I tell [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] and I tell the group: ‘I don’t want to know, but you have to do what you have to do,’” Trump said, according to The New York Post. He then added, “He [Bolton] could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out,” before dismissing Bolton as a “lowlife” and reiterating that he was “not a fan.”
The investigation into Bolton’s handling of classified information is not new. It began in 2020, when Trump’s first Justice Department launched a criminal inquiry into whether Bolton had disclosed national secrets in his tell-all book, The Room Where It Happened. The book, published in 2020, offered a scathing critique of Trump’s foreign policy and leadership, portraying the president as “grossly uninformed about foreign policy” and “stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government.” Trump, in turn, called Bolton a “crazy” warmonger who “would have led the country into World War Six.”
Bolton’s lawyers have maintained that he moved forward with the book only after a White House National Security Council official cleared the manuscript of classified material. The Justice Department under President Biden dropped its lawsuit and a related grand jury investigation into the book in 2021. However, according to a senior U.S. official cited by The New York Post, the current investigation is broader, encompassing a “larger classified leaking probe that extended into the Biden administration.”
The search comes amid a wave of similar high-profile investigations. The Justice Department is also probing mortgage fraud allegations involving Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James—both of whom have denied any wrongdoing. And the specter of the 2022 FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, which recovered more than 300 records with classified markings, still looms large in the public consciousness. That search, which Trump and his allies have repeatedly decried as a “weaponization” of law enforcement, remains a point of outrage for the former president and his supporters.
FBI Director Patel has been outspoken in his criticism of such actions, calling the Mar-a-Lago search a “total weaponization and politicization” of the bureau during a Fox News interview earlier this week. “There was no crime, there was no predicate to go and invade Donald Trump’s home. We have answered that definitively,” Patel stated, echoing sentiments he has shared on his show, “Kash’s Corner.”
Bolton, meanwhile, has not shied away from the political fray. Since being fired by Trump in September 2019 after 17 months as national security adviser, he has become a vocal critic of the former president, regularly appearing on CNN and other outlets to lambast Trump’s national security and foreign policy decisions. Even as FBI agents searched his home, Bolton’s X account posted criticism of Trump’s approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine, stating, “Russia has not changed its goal: drag Ukraine into a new Russian Empire. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede territory it already holds and the remainder of Donetsk, which it has been unable to conquer. Zelensky will never do so. Meanwhile, meetings will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, but I don’t see these talks making any progress.”
The political temperature surrounding the search is further heightened by recent moves from the Trump administration since returning to office in January 2025. Trump revoked the security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials—including Bolton—and canceled Bolton’s Secret Service detail. The latter move sparked concern for Bolton’s safety, particularly given that Iran has identified him as an assassination target in retaliation for his role in the 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. In 2022, an Iranian operative was charged in a plot to kill Bolton, which Bolton responded to on social media by saying, “Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran.”
Bolton’s career has long been marked by controversy and hawkish stances. A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, he also held senior positions in President Ronald Reagan’s administration and considered presidential runs in 2012 and 2016. Throughout, he has been a staunch advocate for regime change in Iran and a relentless critic of what he views as weak U.S. foreign policy.
The handling of classified information by top government officials has become a politically charged issue in recent years. Besides Trump and Bolton, the Justice Department has also investigated President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence for possible mishandling of classified documents. Neither man was charged, but the investigations have fueled partisan debate over double standards and the politicization of law enforcement.
Bolton himself has acknowledged the risks of disagreeing with Trump. In a January interview with the Associated Press, he remarked, “Anybody who ever disagrees with Trump has to worry about retribution. It’s a pretty long list. It’s been a long time since people used to talk about Richard Nixon’s enemies list. But that seems to be Trump’s approach. And so it’s uncharted territory in many respects.”
As of Friday evening, the Justice Department’s investigation into Bolton continues, with no charges filed and no public indication of what, if any, evidence was seized. The raid has only deepened existing divisions in Washington, with each side seeing either the pursuit of justice or the latest salvo in an ongoing political vendetta. For now, the nation watches and waits, wondering just how far this latest chapter in the saga of classified information and political rivalry will go.
