FBI raid on John Bolton had ‘nothing to do with the book’ – report

Speculation about the reason behind the FBI raid of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s home and office was smacked down by a senior U.S. official.

Friday, those clamoring for shows of accountability from the Justice Department were found flirting with optimism once again after an early morning raid of Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, D.C. office. While some, including rabid Never Trump activist George Conway, claimed retaliation was at play over a book penned by Bolton, a U.S. official brought up allegations akin to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.

The New York Post reminded that the President George W. Bush-era U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations had previously had a probe opened against him for allegedly sending his wife and daughter classified national security documents on a private server from his office before Trump removed him in September 2019.

“While Bolton was a national security adviser, he was literally stealing classified information, utilizing his family as a cutout,” the senior official told the Post. Initially, the probe had been opened in 2020 before President Joe Biden’s Justice Department allegedly “shut it down” despite attempts at “trying to prosecute this case for four years.”

Despite the obvious concerns about transmission of “highly sensitive” classified intelligence, Conway had made an appearance outside Bolton’s home on Friday to peddle claims that Trump had dispatched law enforcement over a grudge about what the former NSA had written in his book, “The Room Where It Happened.”

“I’ve heard John Bolton is always fastidious with classified versus unclassified,” stated the Never Trumper, previously married to Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. “… it’s all about the fact that he wrote a book that was uncomplimentary about the president’s mental capacity and other abilities. If that’s what this is about, well, I think we should all start buying John’s book and reading the passages about Donald Trump.”

George Conway, standing in front of Bolton’s house, claims Trump went after John Bolton because he didn’t like the book he wrote about him

pic.twitter.com/F768DHuw1F

— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) August 22, 2025

“[Prosecutors] talk about the book [in the warrants] because it’s good color for him already having essentially broken the law, but we’re not prosecuting him for that … [it has] absolutely 100% nothing to do with the book,” the senior U.S. official told the Post Friday as the president had reportedly aimed to prevent its publication over alleged violations of a non-disclosure agreement pertaining to national secrets. “All these people have been wrapping their heads around an axle about, ‘Oh, they’re really re-litigating the book?’”

“The book investigation is over. Who gives a f*ck?” added the official.

Meanwhile, having revoked Bolton’s security clearances as well as his U.S. Secret Service protective detail upon his return to the White House in January, Trump offered his own commentary on the raids that he’d remained unaware of prior to Friday morning.

“He’s not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic guy — I mean, we’re going to find out,” the president told the press. “I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning.”

When asked about the potential for a brief, Trump explained, “… they’ll brief me, probably today sometime. I don’t want to –I tell Pam and I tell the group — I don’t know, want to know, but just, you have to do what you have to do. I don’t want to know about it. It’s not necessary. 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 on the FBI raid of John Bolton’s house: “And he’s very bad at what he does, but he worked out great for me because every time he doesn’t talk. He’s like a very quiet person except on television who can say something bad about Trump. He’ll always do that. But he really… pic.twitter.com/LOpo1iA7z9

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 22, 2025

Worth noting about the raids was the timing, one day after FBI Director Kash Patel had pointed to declassified memos indicating that then-FBI Director James Comey had allegedly authorized leaks of classified documents going back to the period before the 2016 elections, “while misleading Congress.”

Patel went on to post on X the morning of the raid, “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.”

NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 22, 2025

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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