OAN Staff Abril Elfi
4:30 PM – Saturday, August 23, 2025
Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton should face prosecution for allegedly sending highly sensitive classified information through a private server, top FBI officials reportedly told The New York Post.
On Friday morning, federal agents searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and his Washington, DC, office for evidence tied to their investigation into the Trump critic’s alleged mishandling of “highly sensitive national security documents.”
According to senior sources, the suspected misconduct was first uncovered in 2020 through a “very specific intelligence capacity,” which produced strong evidence that Bolton had “transferred” classified files from his White House desk to his wife and daughter.
Bolton served in Trump’s White House for 17 months, from April 2018 to September 2019, before he announced his resignation, which coincided with a tweet from Trump saying that he had fired his national security advisor.
Investigators launched the case at that time — separate from the earlier probe into Bolton’s alleged disclosure of secrets in his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened — but the Biden administration later “shelved” it, officials said.
Bolton has been one of the most outspoken former Trump officials, frequently condemning his former boss in media interviews.
“The [Biden administration] had probable cause to know that he had taken material that was detrimental to the national security of the United States, and they made no effort to retrieve it,” a senior FBI official told The New York Post on Saturday.
“That was a friendly administration to [Bolton.] They kept bashing [Trump] the entire time for ‘weaponizing law enforcement,’ and they — by politically stopping a righteous investigation — are the ones who weaponized law enforcement,” the official alleged.
Investigators described the case as “air-tight,” yet it was so deeply buried that FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly did not learn of it until about a month after his February confirmation, when he requested a briefing on sensitive matters, sources said.
Initially, Patel assumed the case was linked to the previously closed book investigation. But agents urged him to look further, explaining this was a completely separate probe that the Biden administration had prevented them from advancing for four years.
Tuesday’s raid was carried out to collect additional proof of the alleged misconduct.
According to sources, agents recovered “a lot” of possible evidence at Bolton’s residence and “a bunch” more from his D.C. office.
While federal investigators feel confident about the strength of their case against Bolton, the Justice Department reportedly has no plans to pursue charges against his wife or daughter, sources added.
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