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?
Background
Five 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."
The New York Post reported that an anonymous official told them it was a revival of “Bolton’s alleged use of a private email to send classified national security documents to his wife and daughter from his work desk before his dismissal by Trump on September 2019.”
About two weeks ago Bolton was seen in Qatar. This lends some credence to the claim by Jesse Watters that word was Bolton was making a lot of money from overseas and “may have been trafficking in intelligence.”
Michael Shellenberger says the raid may be connected to the Russian collusion hoax. But until we see more evidence -- like a copy of the search warrant or an indictment -- all this discussion about the purpose of the raid is speculation, though legal scholar Jonathan Turley indicates that mishandling of classified national security materials, if true, places Bolton in substantial legal jeopardy. In a Fox interview he indicated if the breach involved national security defense matters, the penalty could be a 5 to 20 year sentence.
Bolton defenders argue that any case against him would simply be retribution for the years Bolton spent attacking the President. Byron York is right -- that’s an ironic defense:
On Trump and 'retribution': Between March and August 2023, three Democratic prosecutors filed a total of 91 felony charges against Trump. A Democratic law enforcement official pursued a nearly half-billion-dollar lawsuit to destroy his business empire. Other officials went to court to disqualify him under the 14th Amendment. And still others pursued legal action against him for other reasons. So one question: Given all that, what did you think was going to happen?
Actually, I think there’s far more to it than mere retribution. In order to get a warrant for the raid, the FBI and Justice Department had to persuade a judge that there was cause to believe Bolton had in his possession classified documents he had no right to retain. In any event, the raid could be both justified and retributive. There is no doubt that the Obama-Biden crowd broke every norm when they pursued Trump and dozens of his aides and colleagues, and I think there something to be said for retribution, this time, however, within perfectly legal bounds. Nothing is as educative as the lesson we learn from what goes around, comes around.
Hypocrisy
There are probably few, if any, better examples of hypocrisy than the comparison Bolton, McCabe and the revisionist history of the press revealed this week.
“Here is John Bolton very enthusiastic about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. He really pushed the narrative of "No one is above the law." Today the FBI raided on his home and office!”
Andrew McCabe, a man alleged to have lied under oath, leaked information to the media, orchestrated the Russia hoax, signed false FISA affidavits, and enabled the weaponization of the FBI, went on CNN today to claim that Kash Patel is "degrading" the FBI's image and legitimacy.
The Washington Post wins the medal this week for revisionist media history.
“…it's currently retweeting [Glenn Kessler’s] thread about what an honorable public servant John Bolton is.”
The Post criticized him regularly when Biden nominated him for UN Ambassador. (i.e, “Bolton's Tough Style, Record Face Scrutiny”)
The National Cleanup
The Administration is cleaning up more than the deep state.
For the first time in memory there has not been a single murder in the District of Columbia for over a week due to the mobilization efforts of the President. He announced this week that he plans to broaden this urban cleanup to other states, suggesting Chicago and New York City will be the next cities he wants to make safe and orderly. (There are hints Seattle and Portland may follow.) He also announced that up to 1700 National Guardsmen are about to be mobilized in 19 states as part of his nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration and crime. The plan is to keep these troops in place from August through mid-November.
It’s fun to watch Democrats entrapped into continuing to support crime and open borders, entrapped because they can see no way out of the idiocy they’ve spawned for years, idiocy that regular people who vote and pay taxes hate.