The FBI on Friday raided the Maryland home of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser turned frequent Trump critic John Bolton, supercharging the United States’ descent into authoritarianism as he weaponizes the federal government against his perceived enemies.
The New York Post reported that FBI Director Kash Patel personally ordered the raid on Bolton’s home, claiming that it’s related to allegations that Bolton is in possession of classified documents.
“NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission,” Patel wrote in a post on X as agents were rifling through Bolton’s home.
However, given that Bolton is one of 60 people on Patel’s “enemies list” whom he considers to be “disloyal” to Trump and should be prosecuted, the raid looks instead like the kind of lawfare Trump has wrongly claimed he was a victim of.
Trump played coy when asked if he knew about the raid. “I could know about it. I could be the one starting it. I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer,” Trump told reporters.
This is not the first time Bolton has been targeted by Trump. In one of his first moves after taking office again in January, Trump ended Bolton’s Secret Service detail, even though Bolton was reportedly a target of an Iranian assassination attempt.
During Trump’s first term in office, Trump ordered a criminal investigation into Bolton over a book Bolton wrote that slammed Trump as a corrupt moron who only wanted to be reelected “even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation.”
The probe, which was later closed, accused Bolton of illegally disclosing classified information through the book. The first Trump administration also filed a failed lawsuit in order to stop the book from being published. The probe and lawsuit were eventually dropped after Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Bolton has continued to criticize Trump even after he was targeted by the corrupt leader in the first administration. He’s lambasted Trump’s Cabinet picks, including now-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose nomination as attorney general was pulled before it got to a vote. Bolton said both Gabbard and Gaetz are “two people who are totally unqualified, unfit professionally, and really lacking in moral characteristics—the character that you need to hold these jobs.”
And hours before the raid on his home, Bolton appeared on News Nation where he condemned Trump.
“Putin’s KGB training and flattery campaign is working Trump over, as seen by Trump’s statement recently about how Ukraine shouldn’t have taken the war on. It’s important to remember: Ukraine didn’t take anything on, they were invaded,” Bolton said.
Aside from criticizing Trump, Bolton also opposed Patel’s nomination as FBI director.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed in December, Bolton wrote:
Too many of Mr. Trump’s personnel selections evidence his assiduous search for personal fealty from subordinates, not loyalty to the Constitution and its Take Care clause. Stocking his administration with lickspittles will benefit him, but not America. Kash Patel’s nomination as FBI Director squarely fits this pattern.
Now, Patel appears to be getting his revenge by using the Department of Justice to target his enemies—exactly as Bolton and Democrats who opposed Patel’s nomination warned against
“If Senate Republicans confirm Mr. Patel, I believe they will come to regret this vote, probably sooner rather than later,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said in February before Patel’s confirmation. “I oppose Mr. Patel because he is dangerously, politically extreme. He has repeatedly expressed his intention to use our nation’s most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies.”
It appears Durbin’s warning has already come true. But don’t expect Republicans to speak up against Dear Leader’s weaponization of government.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Trump.