It has been a tumultuous week in the nation’s capital, as the Justice Department and the White House find themselves at the center of a swirling storm involving former President Donald Trump, ex-FBI officials, and a high-profile national security adviser. The latest developments have thrown the spotlight on ongoing investigations, political retribution, and the enduring friction between Trump and his critics—both within and outside his own administration.
On Sunday, September 28, 2025, President Donald Trump made headlines during a telephone interview with NBC News, stating that he expects the Department of Justice (DOJ) to be investigating former FBI Director Christopher Wray. "I would imagine," Trump said. "I would certainly imagine. I would think they are doing that." Trump, who appointed Wray to the post in 2017, offered a scathing assessment of his former appointee, declaring, "He did a terrible job and we just found out about it." He further asserted, "I think it’s very inappropriate… what he did. And I think a lot of his service was very inappropriate. But, we haven’t gone beyond that." According to NBC News, Trump did not specify what he believed were Wray’s potentially illegal actions, and Wray has yet to publicly respond to the president’s remarks.
Trump’s pointed comments come amid a broader campaign of retribution against his perceived political enemies. On September 20, 2025, he demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi seek indictments against three of his foes, and he recently stated, "there’ll be others" who will face criminal charges. Despite these moves, Trump has insisted that the charges are not intended as revenge. Yet, the pattern has not gone unnoticed by observers and critics alike, who see these actions as part of a larger effort to settle old scores from his previous time in office.
The Justice Department has already made waves by indicting former FBI Director James Comey, accusing him of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding in connection with an anonymous leak to the media about an FBI probe. Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017 and later blamed by the former president for the investigation into alleged Russian ties to his 2016 campaign, maintains his innocence and has stated that he looks forward to defending himself in court. He is scheduled to be arraigned on October 9.
Trump’s contentious history with both Comey and Wray has been well-documented. Wray, for his part, drew Trump’s ire after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022 as part of an investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents. Wray resigned from the FBI shortly before Trump’s second term began—a move Trump celebrated, calling it a "great day for America." Over the weekend, Trump again took to Truth Social to declare that Wray "has some major explaining to do" following a report by conservative media outlet The Blaze. The report, based on an anonymous source, suggested that FBI agents were present at the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot without a disclosed mission. Trump went so far as to accuse some FBI agents of likely "acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists." However, as previous investigations have shown, claims that the FBI instigated the riot have been debunked, according to multiple news sources.
Adding to the drama, FBI Director Kash Patel appeared on Fox News on Saturday, September 27, 2025, to address the controversy. Patel explained that the officers "were sent into a crowd control mission after the riot was declared by Metro Police," but he criticized the order as "against FBI standards." Patel also accused the FBI under the Biden administration of "corrupt leadership" and of lying "to Congress and the American people about what really happened." Such statements have only fueled the already heated debate about the conduct of federal law enforcement agencies during the tumultuous events of January 6.
Meanwhile, another prominent Trump-era figure has found himself in the DOJ’s crosshairs. On Monday, September 29, 2025, former national security adviser John Bolton spoke at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, flatly denying that he used classified material in his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened. "I’m very confident that there’s nothing in the book that’s classified," Bolton told moderator Ned Price, a former Department of State spokesman. Bolton also insisted that the book had been cleared by Trump for publication after the 2020 election, stating, "What else do you need to know?"
The FBI, however, conducted a search on August 22, 2025, at Bolton’s Bethesda home and Washington office, recovering records labeled "confidential" and "classified," including documents about weapons of mass destruction and diplomatic travel memos. According to court records cited by The New York Sun, the search was ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel and was part of a resumed "national security probe" that began in 2020 after the publication of Bolton’s book. Reports have suggested the FBI is investigating whether Bolton improperly sent classified information from his White House office to a home computer, but Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, stated that the recovered documents were cleared for Bolton’s use and that many were over 20 years old. "These are the kinds of ordinary records, many of which are 20 years old or more, that would be kept by a 40-year career official," Lowell said.
The probe into Bolton’s conduct is yet another chapter in his long-running feud with Trump. Bolton, who served as Trump’s longest-tenured national security adviser—though for less than a year and a half—has been unrelenting in his criticism of the former president. Bolton described Trump as "an aberration in American politics" and was withering in his assessment of Trump’s foreign policy. In his memoir, Bolton wrote that Trump "is unfit to be President," and at Harvard, he added, "nothing disciplined his thinking" and the president "pushed back all the time" at his advisers’ recommendations. "The current administration is all about Donald Trump and his neuron flashes on a day-by-day basis," Bolton remarked, drawing laughter from the audience.
Trump, for his part, has not held back either. He has repeatedly referred to Bolton as "stupid" and a "warmonger," and was said to be particularly irked that Bolton’s book became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, selling 780,000 copies in its first week. The White House tried—and ultimately failed—to block the book’s publication. The Biden administration had dropped the probe after Trump left office, but the case has now been revived.
As for the legal jeopardy facing Bolton, the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and other senior Justice Department officials are reportedly pressuring the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office to present a case to a grand jury as early as this week, according to Reuters. However, some prosecutors are pushing back, requesting more investigation before moving forward. As of September 29, 2025, Bolton has not been charged.
With indictments, investigations, and accusations flying in all directions, the nation is left to watch as former officials and current power players continue their high-stakes battles—each side convinced of their own rectitude, and the truth, as ever, proving elusive.
