SEATTLE – The retribution continues.
On Friday FBI raided the home and office John Bolton, a long-time critic of Donald Trump who served as his national security adviser but later described him as “unfit” for office.
In what commentators see as the latest in a series of actions taken by Trump against people he believes have crossed him, agents searched the Maryland home and Washington DC office of Bolton, 76.
The FBI said it was acting on search warrants issued by courts and was looking into allegations of holding onto or sharing classified information. Bolton has not been charged with any crimes, according to the Associated Press.
On Friday, Trump claimed he had not been given advance notice of the raids. “I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real sort of a low life,” he told reporters “He’s not a smart guy. But he could be a very unpatriotic. I’m going to find out.”
FBI Director Kash Patel, who included Bolton in a list of “members of the executive branch deep state” in a 2023 book, wrote on X: “NO ONE is above the law – @FBI agents on mission.”
The post was shared by the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, who added: “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”
There was no immediate comment from Bolton, whom the Associated Press said had been seen in the lobby of an office building in the nation’s capital talking to two people with “FBI” on their jackets.
Precisely what classified information Bolton was alleged to have held onto was not clear. In 2020, the Trump administration sued him over a memoir he wanted to publish, The Room Where It Happened, detailing the 18 months he served the president during Trump’s first term.
A judge later permitted Bolton to publish the book, in which he claimed Trump was “stunningly uninformed” and both “mercurial and unhinged”.
In the foreword to the updated 2024 edition, he wrote: “Trump is unfit to be president. If his first four years were bad, a second four will be worse.”
Yet despite Trump’s apparent ignorance of this FBI raid, critics are already seeing it as only the latest power grab by a man who has constantly pushed the boundaries of the presidency.
During his 2024 election campaign, Trump told supporters “I am your retribution.” However, since his return to the White House, his retribution looks like the latest act of personally and politically motivated revenge.
Within hours of being sworn in back in January, Trump removed security clearances from former top officials who fell out with him during his first term, including Bolton – despite Iranian threats to his life.
In addition, Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and top military commander General Mark Milley, both of whom have also condemned Trump, were stripped of their security clearances. General Milley reportedly called Trump “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country”.
He has since targeted law firms who have represented Democrats, launched high-profile social media campaigns against judges, and frozen funding to universities in what critics say is an attempt to crack down on free speech.
Earlier this year, a senior official who headed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during Trump’s first term revealed that he was under investigation by the FBI after he declared Joe Biden had fairly won the 2020 election. Trump has repeatedly claimed, with no proof, that the election was “rigged”.
Trump has also overseen a purge of the FBI itself, appointing officials who are more “loyal” to him and willing to go after his enemies. Patel was named FBI Director after the former right-wing commentator published an “enemies list” of government figures whom he thought should face consequences.
According to CBS News, agents have been targeted because they worked on criminal investigations of Trump or the Biden administration’s investigation of the 6 January 2021 insurrection in Washington DC.
Mark Zaid, a whistleblower lawyer representing federal workers dismissed under Trump, told the publication: “If you look at Patel’s testimony from his confirmation hearing when he promised the committee there would be no politicisation or retribution at the FBI under his leadership you have to conclude that he was either lying or, giving him the benefit of the doubt, that he was directed to take these actions, and that could only come from the White House or the Justice Department.”
Politically, Bolton is positioned to the right of the 79-year-old Trump and has long been considered a hardliner, especially on matters of national security. He served as US Ambassador to the UN for George W Bush, was a supporter of the invasion of Iraq and often backed ideas such as regime change in Iran and elsewhere.
He is part of a group that would also include the likes of former congresswoman Liz Cheney, 59, daughter of one-time vice president Dick Cheney, 84, who defend America’s global role and the sanctity of the US Constitution.
But since leaving Trump’s administration, Bolton has been a vocal critic in the media, appearing often on channels such as CNN and MSNBC to critique the US President.
Only weeks ago, when asked about the possibility that the Trump administration could seek revenge against him, Bolton suggested it had already “come after me”, citing the removal of his security detail, and adding: “I think it is a retribution presidency.”
Since returning to the Oval Office, Trump, who himself was charged with the mishandling of classified documents, charges that were dismissed after he won a second term, has been promoting himself as a champion of so-called law and order and someone who will crack down on illegal immigration. Today, he described himself as the “chief law enforcement officer”.
In Los Angeles, he dispatched the US Marines and National Guard after protesters demonstrating over the way immigration agents were launching raids in schools, markets and carparks of large retail stores where labourers often gather to seek work.
More recently, he has done the same in Washington DC, calling in the National Guard to address what he claims is soaring crime. Independent data shows it is actually falling.
And critics have also pointed out that this so-called champion of law and order ordered clemency to some 1,600 people convicted during the attack on the US Capitol in 2021, for crimes including assaulting law enforcement officers and using deadly weapons. And before that, he packed the Supreme Court with appointees who ruled that presidents were partially immune from criminal prosecution.
So much for no one being above the law.
