FBI conducts search at John Bolton’s home as part of resumed national security investigation

By Evan Perez, Michael Callahan, Shania Shelton, Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — The FBI conducted a court-authorized search at John Bolton’s home as part of a national security investigation into whether he disclosed classified information in his 2020 book, according to two people familiar with the matter.

CNN observed FBI personnel at President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-critic’s house in the Washington, DC, area. They were seen speaking to a person on the porch of the house, and at least four to six agents were seen going inside.

Some of the agents took bags out of the vehicles to bring inside, but nothing was seen coming out of the residence.

The FBI had also planned to search Bolton’s office on Friday morning, according to a source familiar with the investigation, though it was unclear when that search would be conducted. CNN saw several unmarked federal vehicles outside Bolton’s office building in downtown Washington on Friday morning.

Reached by CNN, Bolton said he was unaware of the FBI activity and was looking into it further. His attorney didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The search at Bolton’s house was first reported by the New York Post. The FBI declined to comment on it.

Bolton last served in government in 2019 before Trump fired him during his first administration.

Trump’s fraught history with Bolton

Trump has repeatedly gone after his former national security adviser while in office, including most recently saying this month that the media was “constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton.”

The president terminated Bolton’s Secret Service detail within hours of starting his second term in January.

During his first term, the president threatened to jail Bolton after he published a book in 2020 in which he claimed Trump was woefully under-informed on matters of foreign policy and obsessed with shaping his media legacy. The book also reported that Trump asked the leaders of Ukraine and China to help him win the 2020 election.

The book included material that initially was cleared for publication by career officials at the White House, but Trump political appointees sought to overturn that approval.

The Justice Department investigated Bolton over the possibility that he “unlawfully disclosed classified information” in his memoir, though officials under former President Joe Biden closed the investigation and dropped a related lawsuit connected to the publication of the book in 2021.

Trump and his government have carried out a campaign of retribution in recent months against a wide swath of the president’s perceived political enemies, ranging from former Trump officials to members of Congress to the prosecutors who brought cases against the president while he was out of office.

Last week, FBI Director Kash Patel declassified and released internal FBI interview notes from a former House Intelligence Committee staffer who first accused former Rep. Adam Schiff in 2017 of directing illegal leaks of classified information about Trump and Russia, in an escalation of Trump’s long-standing feud with Schiff.

The Justice Department also opened a grand jury investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James this month over the civil actions she brought against Trump and the National Rifle Association.

Public nature of FBI search

The public nature of the FBI search on Friday at Bolton’s house – with agents wearing prominently identifiable “FBI” jackets while entering and exiting the house throughout the morning and key officials appearing to telegraph it on social media – has already led neighbors and friends of Bolton to say the search may be related to political retribution.

Top FBI officials posted on social media Friday morning just after 7 am. FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X, “NO ONE is above the law … @FBI agents on mission.” The FBI’s co-deputy director Dan Bongino posted, “Public corruption will not be tolerated.”

Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General Pam Bondi also reposted Patel’s comment, with Bondi adding, “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”

If the officials are cryptically referring to Bolton, it would be a notable departure of the Bureau’s practice of not commenting publicly on investigations, especially as FBI agents are still at the scene.

For instance, the hours-long FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for classified records in 2022 was conducted with officials in plain clothes, and with the public largely unaware of the search until it was nearly concluded. Patel has since called the Mar-a-Lago search a “total weaponization and politicization by the FBI and DOJ.”

Trump was indicted by a grand jury for mishandling several national security documents he retained after his first term in office, keeping boxes of classified records in a bathroom, a ballroom and other rooms at his Florida resort, until a Florida-based judge dismissed the case in 2024.

Bolton, a longtime conservative who had previously served in the Reagan and both Bush administrations, has been a political foe of Trump’s since he left the White House in the first term.

This story and headline have been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

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