The FBI raided the home of former National Security Adviser John Bolton on Friday morning as part of an investigation into allegations that he used a private email server to transmit classified documents.Bolton, who became a vocal critic of President Donald Trump after his dismissal from the White House during Trump’s first term, was at his D.C.-area residence when agents arrived around 7 a.m., according to a source familiar with the operation, the Daily Mail reported.
A senior U.S. official told the New York Postthat the raid — ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel — was connected to a revived investigation into allegations that John Bolton sent national security documents from his work account to his wife and daughter.
The alleged transmissions occurred shortly before Trump dismissed him in September 2019. The probe reportedly continued after Trump left office but was put on hold during the Biden administration.
A senior US official told The Post that Bolton “was literally stealing classified information, utilizing his family as a cutout” while he still worked for the Trump administration.
The raid was reportedly connected to an investigation into allegations that John Bolton sent classified documents to family members from a private email server while serving in the White House, The Post said.
Beginning around 7 a.m. ET, more than a dozen federal agents were observed carrying boxes into and out of Bolton’s residence. Additional agents were also seen entering his downtown Washington, D.C., office.
A source told the Daily Mail that Bolton was at home when the raid began, though he was not seen publicly, leaving his exact whereabouts uncertain. Cameras instead captured his wife, Gretchen Smith Bolton, appearing visibly distressed as she spoke briefly with federal agents at the front door of their Bethesda residence Friday morning, the Daily Mail added.
Bethesda, one of the wealthiest cities in the United States, was the backdrop as agents entered the home.
Trump, speaking later in the Oval Office, drew a comparison between the raid on Bolton’s residence and the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property in 2022. He said he had no role in authorizing the operation but used the moment to sharply criticize his former national security adviser.
“I purposely don’t want to really get involved in it. I’m not a fan of John Bolton,” he told reporters. “My house was raided also… So I know the feeling. It’s not a good feeling.”
As for Bolton personally, Trump added: “He doesn’t talk, he’s like a very quiet person except on television and then he can say something bad about Trump. He’ll always do that. But he doesn’t talk, he’s very quiet.”
Following the raid, Bolton delivered a sharp critique of Trump’s Ukraine policy, describing it as characterized by “confusion, haste, and disarray.”
“Collapsing in confusion, haste, and the absence of any discernible meeting of the minds among Ukraine, Russia, several European countries, and America, Trump’s negotiations may be in their last throes, along with his Nobel Peace Prize campaign,” Bolton, who briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner.
Bolton argued that Trump’s effort to fast-track a peace deal was “inevitably” bound to fail, saying the Aug. 15 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska had been organized at a pace “almost surely unprecedented in modern history.”
Bolton criticized Trump’s abrupt reversal after the Alaska summit — stepping back from new sanctions on Moscow and dropping demands for a ceasefire in favor of pursuing a “final agreement” — as evidence of what he described as chaotic diplomacy.
The former U.N. ambassador also pointed to conflicting signals within the administration, noting that while Trump urged Ukraine to strike inside Russia, the Pentagon was blocking Kyiv from receiving long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), according to a Wall Street Journal report published Saturday.
