Federal agents seized three computers, two iPhones, and stacks of documents from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton’s home during an Aug. 22 raid, according to court records. The filings also indicate the 76-year-old could face charges carrying a prison sentence of more than a decade.
Agents searched Bolton’s Bethesda, Md., residence and his Washington, D.C., office as part of an investigation into allegations that he removed national security files from the White House during Trump’s first term, allegedly emailing them to family members through a private server, senior FBI officials told the New York Post.
In addition to the high-tech hardware, agents confiscated two USB drives, a hard drive, four boxes of “printed daily activities,” “typed documents in folders labeled ‘Trump I – IV’” and a white binder labeled “statements and reflections to allied strikes,” according to an inventory made public Thursday.
The warrant showed Bolton is under investigation for possible violations of two provisions of the 1917 Espionage Act, which bar the unauthorized possession or removal of national defense information, as well as a separate statute prohibiting the hoarding of classified documents.
If convicted on all counts, Bolton could face up to 25 years in prison. He has not been arrested or formally charged. Officials told The Post the case was shelved during the Biden administration but was reopened by FBI Director Kash Patel about a month after he took office in February.
Trump’s Justice Department is now questioning whether the Biden-era FBI’s decision to drop the case against one of Trump’s sharpest foreign policy critics was politically motivated.
“The [Biden administration] had probable cause to know that he had taken material that was detrimental to the national security of the United States, and they made no effort to retrieve it,” a senior FBI official told The Post shortly after the raid.
“That was a friendly administration to [Bolton],” the official further alleged. “They kept bashing [Trump] the entire time for ‘weaponizing law enforcement,’ and they — by politically stopping a righteous investigation — are the ones who weaponized law enforcement.”
