On August 23, 2025, the political world was rocked by news that the FBI had executed search warrants at the Maryland home and Washington office of John Bolton, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump. The raids, part of an ongoing investigation into the handling of classified information, have thrust Bolton—already a prominent and outspoken critic of Trump—back into the national spotlight, reigniting fierce debate over the intersection of politics, justice, and the boundaries of executive power.
According to The Associated Press, the FBI’s actions came as a surprise to many, as Bolton was neither detained nor charged with any crime. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the investigation centers on Bolton’s 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, which offered a scathing insider account of Trump’s White House. Bolton’s book, a hefty 577-page volume, painted Trump as “grossly ill-informed about foreign policy” and accused him of making decisions based on personal and political gain rather than national interest.
Bolton’s tenure as Trump’s third national security adviser, from 2018 until his abrupt resignation in September 2019, was marked by frequent clashes over policy toward North Korea, Iran, and Russia. Bolton, a self-described foreign policy hawk, was skeptical of Trump’s overtures to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and advocated for a tougher stance on Iran, including regime change. Ultimately, these policy rifts led to his departure, with Trump announcing on social media that he had accepted Bolton’s resignation—a claim Bolton later disputed.
The release of Bolton’s memoir in 2020 prompted a furious response from Trump and his allies. The White House sought a court order to block the book’s publication, arguing it contained “highly classified information” that had not been cleared for release. Trump publicly denounced Bolton as a “washed-up guy” and a “crazy warmonger,” claiming that the book was both inaccurate and dangerous. In his memoir, Bolton described Trump as someone who “saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government.” He alleged that Trump tied U.S. military aid to Ukraine to the country’s willingness to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, and claimed that Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping for help in the 2020 election.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into Bolton’s book in 2020, examining whether it contained classified information. Under President Joe Biden, the probe was quietly shelved in 2021, and a related lawsuit seeking to seize Bolton’s book profits was dropped. However, as CNN and MSNBC have reported, the investigation was quietly revived in 2025, culminating in the recent FBI raids. The renewed scrutiny has prompted speculation about the motivations behind the probe and its potential implications for free speech and political dissent.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney who himself experienced FBI raids in 2018, weighed in on MSNBC after the news broke. “I believe that he needs to lawyer up,” Cohen advised Bolton, drawing on his own legal ordeal. Cohen, who served prison time for charges related to hush money payments, argued that the raid was “predicated” on the contents of Bolton’s book and predicted, “there’s no doubt” Bolton will be indicted. He suggested that Trump is systematically targeting his political adversaries, stating, “He’s doing it to Tish James, he’s doing it to Adam Schiff, he’s doing it to Alvin Bragg and there are many more on that list that will ultimately suffer a very similar consequence.”
Despite such claims, Vice President JD Vance, in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, dismissed suggestions that the investigation was politically motivated or a form of retribution against a frequent Trump critic. Vance’s remarks echoed the position of several Republican leaders, who have argued that the justice system is functioning independently, regardless of the high-profile nature of the individuals involved.
Fox News, meanwhile, aired extensive coverage expressing concern about the precedent set by the FBI’s actions. Hosts and contributors warned that if a figure as prominent as Bolton could be subject to such a raid, “it could happen to anybody.” This sentiment resonated with viewers already wary of government overreach and the weaponization of federal agencies for political ends.
Bolton, for his part, has not shied away from continuing his criticism of Trump. In a recent NPR interview, he argued that little has changed in efforts to resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine, suggesting that Trump’s push for a Nobel Peace Prize was his primary motivation for seeking an end to the conflict. “There’s no indication at all that Russia has in any way changed its objective, which is to bring Ukraine into the greater Russian Empire,” Bolton said. He also rejected the notion that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was prepared to make the concessions Russia had demanded, particularly regarding the Donetsk region.
Bolton’s social media posts have been equally pointed. On X (formerly Twitter), he wrote, “Putin’s KGB training and flattery campaign is working Trump over, as seen by Trump’s statement recently about how Ukraine shouldn’t have taken the war on. It’s important to remember: Ukraine didn’t take anything on, they were invaded.” Following Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Bolton posted, “In Alaska, President Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won. Vladimir has his old friend Donald back.”
Beyond his feud with Trump, Bolton’s career has been defined by his staunch defense of American power. He served in senior roles under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, acting as the State Department’s point man on arms control and, later, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton’s hardline views on Iraq and skepticism of multilateral institutions made him a controversial figure, unable to win Senate confirmation for his UN post, which he held via a recess appointment.
Bolton has also flirted with presidential runs in the past, considering campaigns in 2012 and 2016, and was motivated to run in 2024 after Trump, still fixated on his 2020 loss, called for the “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” to reinstate himself as president. Bolton called the comment “disqualifying” and warned that a second Trump term would pose a grave threat to national security.
Amid the swirl of legal, political, and personal drama, the question remains: Is the renewed investigation into Bolton a legitimate effort to safeguard classified information, or does it signal a broader crackdown on dissent within the Republican Party? With both sides digging in—and the 2024 campaign season heating up—the fate of John Bolton and the future of political accountability in Washington hang in the balance.
