Videos: FBI raids home of fmr. top Trump official

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the home of John Bolton, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, on Friday morning. The raid on the former national security adviser’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, comes after Bolton was stripped of his security clearances and security detail earlier this year.

A Trump administration official told The New York Post that the raid on Bolton’s home in Bethesda took place at 7 a.m. on Friday and was part of an investigation directed by FBI Director Kash Patel.

A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, shows FBI agents at Bolton’s home during Friday’s raid. 

In a second video, FBI officials can be seen loading items into a vehicle outside of the former national security adviser’s office in Washington, D.C.

According to The New York Post, a senior U.S. official indicated that a probe into Bolton was launched in 2020 but was ended by former President Joe Biden’s administration “for political reasons.” The outlet noted that the investigation into Bolton allegedly involves classified documents. 

While the senior official told The New York Post that Bolton was not arrested or charged on Friday, the official noted that the FBI raid comes after “years of investigation” into the potential criminal release of information considered classified by Trump’s National Security Council during his first administration.

According to The New York Post, the investigation into Bolton started in the same year that the Justice Department launched a criminal inquiry into the inclusion of alleged classified information in Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened.” Bolton wrote the book after serving as Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019.

Fox News reported that Biden’s Justice Department ultimately ended a criminal inquiry and a civil lawsuit against Bolton in June of 2021. 

In a statement following the start of the FBI’s raid on Bolton’s home on Friday, Patel wrote, “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.” 

Sharing the FBI director’s post, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino added, “Public corruption will not be tolerated.” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also shared Patel’s statement on Friday, tweeting, “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”