FBI agents raided the home of former Trump national security adviser John Bolton on Friday morning.
The search was part of a high-profile national security probe, according to the New York Post.
Agents arrived at Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland, home around 7 a.m. ET.
The operation was ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump administration official told the outlet.
“NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission,” Patel posted to X shortly after the raid began.
NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 22, 2025
The investigation involves Bolton’s handling of classified documents and was first launched five years ago, according to the New York Post.
A senior U.S. official told the outlet the Biden administration shut it down for political reasons.
At 7:32 a.m., Bolton’s X account posted a criticism of Trump’s Ukraine policy while agents were still inside his home.
“Russia has not changed its goal: drag Ukraine into a new Russian Empire,” the post read.
“Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede territory it already holds and the remainder of Donetsk, which it has been unable to conquer. Zelensky will never do so. Meanwhile, meetings will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, but I don’t see these talks making any progress.”
Russia has not changed its goal: drag Ukraine into a new Russian Empire. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede territory it already holds and the remainder of Donetsk, which it has been unable to conquer. Zelensky will never do so. Meanwhile, meetings will continue because…
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) August 22, 2025
Bolton previously faced scrutiny for allegedly including classified information in his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.”
Trump’s Justice Department opened an inquiry into the book in September 2020.
Biden’s Justice Department dropped its lawsuit and a grand jury investigation in 2021, the Associated Press reported.
Bolton’s lawyers said a White House National Security Council official had cleared the manuscript before publication.
As Friday’s raid unfolded, an AP reporter saw Bolton in the lobby of a Washington building where he keeps an office.
Bolton was speaking with two people wearing vests labeled “FBI,” the AP said.
He later left the lobby and appeared to have gone upstairs in the building, according to the report.
Neither Bolton’s spokesperson nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment, the AP reported.
The New York Post added, the raid came one day after Patel revealed former FBI Director James Comey authorized leaks of classified documents “while misleading Congress” before the 2016 election.
A 2022 MSNBC clip of Bolton criticizing Trump in relation to classified materials resurfaced Friday and went viral.
“I don’t think [Trump] cared about the classification system,” Bolton said at the time.
3 years ago, John Bolton raced to a TV studio to criticize President Trump over classified documents.
"I don't think he cared about the classification system. I don't think he appreciated the sensitivity of this information. … He liked cool things, he saw things that so he… https://t.co/JdnLBfilW2 pic.twitter.com/oojEbtann7
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 22, 2025
“I don’t think he appreciated the sensitivity of this information. … Some days, he liked to eat a lot of French fries. Some days he took classified documents.”
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