Last week, the home of former Trump official John Bolton was raided by the FBI.
The search gained national headlines, with the media and Democrats immediately saying that it was nothing more than part of Trump’s revenge tour.
It turns out, the FBI was looking for possible classified information, some of which was believed to have been used in Bolton’s recent tell-all book.
Bolton is not the only Trump critic facing the wrath of the administration right now.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, once a top ally of Trump’s, is also facing a possible investigation. Trump dropped that little tidbit after Christie appeared on the Sunday morning circuit, blasting the president again.
Trump is now threatening to have Christie investigated over the #Bridgegate scandal, stating, “Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison, at the same time sacrificing people who worked for him, including a young mother, who spent years trying to fight off the vicious charges against her.”
He continued, “Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts. For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again?"
Bolton served as Trump’s National Security Adviser for a brief period, then proceeded to go on any news network that would have him to blast his former boss. Bolton is about as swampy as it gets, so I never quite understood why Trump brought him in (likely because people like Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell were advising him at this point in time).
Bolton went off on X after the raid, posting, “Donald Trump’s Ukraine policy today is no more coherent than it was last Friday when his administration executed search warrants against my home and office. Collapsing in confusion and haste, Trump’s negotiations may be in their last throes, along with his Nobel Peace Prize campaign.”
He also wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, where he further stated, “The administration has tried to camouflage its disarray behind social media posts, such as Trump comparing his finger-pointing at Russian President Vladimir Putin to then-Vice President Richard Nixon during the famous kitchen debate with Nikita Khrushchev. Why Trump wants to be compared to the only president who resigned in disgrace is unclear.”
While Bolton has applauded some Trump policies, he regularly contends that the president is not fit for office and is a danger to the country. This is the fastest way to get Democrats on your side when Trump attacks, and it worked. Democrats who railed against Bolton their entire careers are now advocating for the man as a victim of political weaponization.
What always amuses me about the media when Trump’s DOJ goes after someone is that the idea that the person actually did something wrong is never really considered. Mainstream media voices automatically deem it as an act of revenge, and journalists never really bother to investigate the situation before going off on Trump.
In Bolton’s case, as we have seen in other cases, that may come back to bite them, as more reports are surfacing that the former government official could be in big trouble, and this goes well beyond his book.
Prominent D.C.-based attorney Mark Zaid, a national security expert, explained, "With respect to Bolton's book, he is potentially vulnerable if he maintains any copies of early drafts which were determined to contain ‘voluminous’ amounts of classified information when it was first submitted to the White House for review. Those drafts were likely disseminated, per normal course of business, to his literary agent, publisher, and lawyer."
If his attorneys or agents reviewed classified information, he is now in real jeopardy. We should also note that Bolton never received approval from the National Security Council before he moved forward with publishing his book. For the former, he could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. For the latter, he is also facing some serious legal problems if classified information is in his book. On top of that, there are financial implications to having to defend yourself against such charges, as Trump learned more than once. Bolton has a net worth of about $6 million, according to recent reports, and we have seen people worth 10 times as much go broke defending themselves against the government.
