August 24, 2025
Retribution, Unfinished Business, or Something Else?
By Clarice Feldman
This week the FBI conducted a seven- or eight-hour raid on former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s home and his office. (Unlike raids such as those the Biden administration conducted against Trump, his employees, advisors, and associates, no press was alerted and engaged, so reports are from bystanders who videotaped it on their cell phones.) Is the raid on John Bolton’s home retribution? Revival of a dormant case against him for mishandling national security? Something more sinister?
BackgroundFive years ago, the Trump Department of Justice sued to enjoin the publication of John Bolton’s book The Room Where it Happened on the grounds that it contained classified information he was not authorized to disclose. Judge Royce Lamberth declined injunctive relief (Under the First Amendment it is almost impossible to prevent publication in advance by injunctive relief.) but made it clear that Bolton had mishandled such information:
BREAKING #BoltonBook From Judge Lamberth “While Bolton’s unilateral conduct raises grave national security concerns, the government has not established that an injunction is an appropriate remedy” + “Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States...The judge “…faulted Bolton for putting the nation's security at risk with some of the content he included, and stated that Bolton might have opened himself up to civil, and potentially even criminal liability by his actions.”
The department then sought to seize any profits from the sale of the book, but post-election the Biden Administration ceased pursuing the matter.
The FBI conducted a reported eight-hour raid on his home and office this week. There are varied reports of what they were seeking. Could they just be reviving the 2020 suit? Joel Pollak asserts the security breach in his book was because Bolton believed he was going to be shielded by Biden:
He allegedly did it believing, correctly, that his opposition to Trump would shield him from prosecution. Evidently, he did not think Trump would come back. Meanwhile he dumped on Trump over... classified docs.While the administration may be following on the earlier case which Biden dropped, the raid must involve something more. "Search warrants cannot be based on "stale " information. Thus, John Bolton had to have committed some act recently that was basis for searches of his home and office."
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/08/retribution_unfinished_business_or_something_else.html
