Why Did FBI Search John Bolton's Home?
By Reuters | 22 Aug, 2025

The unescapable conclusion: Trump is now so secure in his abuses of power that he feel 100% comfortable weaponizing the federal government to suppress critics.

Members of the media stand outside the home of the former White House national security adviser John Bolton as it is searched by FBI members, in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., August 22, 2025. REUTERS/Tasos Katopodis

FBI agents searched the home of John Bolton, a former adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump turned persistent critic, on Friday as part of a national security probe, a source briefed on the matter said.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents began searching his house in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, at 7 a.m. as part of a probe ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, according to the New York Post, which first reported the raid.

"NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission," Patel wrote, without mentioning Bolton, in an X post shortly after 7 a.m. that was reposted by a White House spokesman.

Bolton served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and as the White House national security adviser during Trump's first term in office. However, since then he has become a critic of the Republican president, calling him unfit to serve.

Trump has repeatedly moved to wield the levers of presidential power against his perceived enemies since taking office in January, following his campaign promise of political retribution.

 The president previously stripped Bolton of protective Secret Service detail that had been assigned after the U.S. Justice Department said Iran had threatened his life. The White House was also accused of improperly intervening to block Bolton from releasing his best-selling memoir by falsely claiming it contained classified information.

Representatives for the FBI and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Bolton representative could not be immediately reached.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Brendan O'Brien; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Scott Malone, Sharon Singleton, Chizu Nomiyama and Mark Porter)