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WASHINGTON: The FBI on Friday searched the Maryland home and Washington office of former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton as part of a criminal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, a person familiar with the matter said.
Bolton, who emerged as an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump after being fired in 2019 and feuded with the first Trump administration over a scathing book he wrote documenting his time in the White House, was not in custody Friday and has not been charged with any crimes, said the person who was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The searches, seemingly the most significant public step the Justice Department has taken against a perceived enemy of the president, are likely to elicit fresh alarm that the Trump administration is using its law enforcement powers to target the Republican’s foes. They come as the Trump administration has moved to examine the activities of other critics, including by authorizing a grand jury investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe that dogged Trump for much of his first term, and as FBI and Justice Department leaders signal their loyalty to the president.
They also unfolded against the backdrop of a 2022 search for classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, an action that produced since-dismissed criminal charges but remains the source of outrage for the president and supporters who insist he was unjustly targeted despite the retrieval of top-secret records. Current FBI Director Kash Patel, who included Bolton on a list of “members of the Executive Branch Deep State” in a 2023 book, said in a Fox News Channel interview this week that the Mar-a-Lago search represented a “total weaponization and politicization” of the bureau.
Speaking to reporters during an unscheduled visit to the White House Historical Association, Trump said he had seen news coverage of Friday’s searches and expected to be briefed about it by the Justice Department but also insisted he didn’t “want to know about it.”
“I could know about it. I could be the one starting it. I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer. But I feel that it’s better this way,” Trump said.
Bolton had said in interviews in the last few months that he was mindful that he could scrutinized, telling the AP in January shortly before Trump took office, “Anybody who ever disagrees with Trump has to worry about retribution. It’s a pretty long list.”
“It’s been a long time since people used to talk about Richard Nixon’s enemies list. But that seems to be Trump’s approach. And so it’s uncharted territory in many respects,” Bolton said.
Bolton was in his office building at the time
Bolton was not home for the search of his home, but after it started, he was spotted Friday morning standing in the lobby of the Washington building where he keeps an office and talking to two people with “FBI” visible on their vests. He left a few minutes later and appeared to have gone upstairs in the building. Agents were seen taking bags into the office building through a back entrance.
Messages left with a spokesperson for Bolton were not immediately returned, and a lawyer who has represented Bolton had no immediate comment.
The Justice Department had no comment, but leaders appeared to cryptically refer to the search of Bolton’s home in a series of social media posts Friday morning.
Patel posted on X: “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.” Attorney General Pam Bondi shared his post, adding: “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”
The Justice Department is separately conducting mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company, and ex-Trump prosecutor Jack Smith faces an investigation from an independent watchdog office. Schiff and James have vigorously denied any wrongdoing through their lawyers.
Trump and Bolton have been at odds for years
Bolton served as Trump’s third national security adviser for 17 months and clashed with him over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.
He faced scrutiny during the first Trump administration over a book he wrote about his time in government that officials argued disclosed classified information. To make its case, the Justice Department in 2020 submitted sworn statements from senior White House officials, including then-National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone, asserting that Bolton’s manuscript included classified information that could harm national security if exposed.
Bolton’s lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked for months, said the manuscript no longer contained classified information.
The Justice Department in 2021 abandoned its lawsuit and dropped a separate grand jury investigation, with Bolton’s lawyer calling the effort to block the book “politically motivated” and illegitimate.
Bolton’s harshly critical book, “The Room Where It Happened,” portrayed Trump as grossly ill-informed about foreign policy and said he “saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government.”
Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a “crazy” war-monger who would have led the country into “World War Six.”
Bolton served as US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush and also held positions in President Ronald Reagan’s administration. He considered running for president in 2012 and 2016.
Trump, on his first day back in office this year, revoked the security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials, including Bolton. Bolton was also among a group of former Trump officials whose security details were canceled by Trump earlier this year.
In 2022, an Iranian operative was charged in a plot to kill Bolton in presumed retaliation for a 2020 US airstrike that killed the country’s most powerful general.
The handling of classified information by top government officials has been a politically loaded topic in recent years. Besides Trump, the Justice Department also investigated whether then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, mishandled classified information after serving as vice president in the Obama administration, and the FBI also recovered what it said were classified documents from the home of former Trump Vice President Mike Pence. Neither man was charged.

NEW DELHI: In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on Indian goods, New Delhi has moved to rebuild ties with Beijing while continuing its close energy and defense partnership with Russia, moves that experts say carry strategic opportunities.

After a yearslong standoff between India and China over a deadly clash at their disputed border, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in the Indian capital on Monday for a two-day visit and talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.

Modi hailed the improved relations with Beijing and said after the meeting that the “steady progress” they made was “guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities.”

The two sides also agreed to resume direct flights between China and India to help boost trade and investment, facilitate business and cultural exchanges, and recommence the issuing of journalist and tourist visas.

The thaw in relations comes after Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods, 25 percent of which was a penalty for India buying Russian oil, which Washington said was helping fuel Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The Indian government said the tariffs were “unjustified and unreasonable” and vowed to “take all necessary steps to protect its national interests.”

The progress in India-China relations was followed by Jaishankar’s three-day visit to Moscow, which ended on Thursday and resulted in the two sides agreeing to boost trade ties.

In a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Jaishankar said that relations between the two countries had been “among the steadiest of the major relationships in the world” since World War II.

The sides reaffirmed their ambition to expand two-way trade, including an increase in Indian exports to Russia.

“This requires swiftly addressing non-tariff barriers and regulatory impediments,” Jaishankar said.

“Enhancing Indian exports to Russia in sectors like pharmaceuticals, agriculture and textiles will certainly help to correct the current imbalance.”

Harsh V. Pant, vice president at Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation, said that while India’s engagements with Russia and China had started before Trump’s global tariff campaign, it had acted as a catalyst.

“What Trump seems to have done is to create a sentiment against America in India and to accelerate India’s ties with these countries,” he told Arab News.

International affairs expert Mohan Guruswamy said that Delhi’s efforts to strengthen ties with China and Russia would assure “India of its strategic independence.”

“By associating with America, it lost it. And associating with America has proved to be expensive,” he told Arab News.

Bharat Karnad, a political scientist and emeritus professor at the Center for Policy Research in Delhi, said India’s frayed ties with Washington were an opportunity for it “to rethink and repurpose (its) strategy.”

“America has always been an unreliable, untrustworthy partner to all its allies. It’s historically been the case that America helps only when its own interests are served and not when the allies’ interests are at stake,” he told Arab News.

This was an opportunity for Modi’s government to support de-dollarization efforts that had been pursued by the BRICS geopolitical forum, which includes India, Russia and China, he said.

“This is the time, and there are still some indications that we are working toward precisely the kinds of BRICS initiative to de-dollarize trade.

“Rather than become captive of the US or Western or any other … trading system, we should have the independence and the flexibility to switch to serve our national interests.”