Democrats, Media May Soon Regret White-Knighting For John Bolton Over FBI Raid

Democrats and media personalities scrambled to white knight for former National Security Adviser John Bolton when news broke that the FBI had raided his home and office, but they may soon regret doing so as more information has begun to surface about the investigation.

Democrats and media were quick to defend Bolton, who served as national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term before falling out of favor, claiming that the raid was proof positive that Trump was using the Justice Department to exact revenge on his political enemies. But according to a report published by The New York Times on Wednesday, the investigation into Bolton actually picked up steam while former President Joe Biden was in office due to information — uncovered by U.S. intelligence — about Bolton’s handling of classified information.

Even The New York Times raised the question of whether Trump was using the raids to punish detractors — but also pointed out that Bolton may be in some serious trouble.

The United States gathered data from an adversarial country’s spy service, including emails with sensitive information that Mr. Bolton, while still working in the first Trump administration, appeared to have sent to people close to him on an unclassified system.

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While those searches have raised fresh questions about the extent to which Mr. Trump may be using the Justice Department and F.B.I. to try to punish those he dislikes, the new details of the case present a more complex chain of events. The disclosures suggest that a long-running investigation into Mr. Bolton’s activities changed over time, with some of the issues echoing past inquiries into the handling of national security secrets.

According to the report, the investigation began just prior to the publication of Bolton’s book — “The Room Where It Happened” — when the first Trump administration attempted to stop its publication. The book went to print anyway, and the investigation effectively stalled until the intelligence community uncovered the emails.

The investigation has thus far revealed that Bolton had emailed several people who were assisting him in compiling the information he would later use to write his book — and had included information he appeared to have obtained from classified documents to which he had access while serving in the Trump administration.

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As The New York Times reported, the raids were conducted in an effort to determine whether Bolton had in his possession records of the same information that was uncovered by the intelligence community. Two federal judges signed off on the warrants.

Just after the raid, however, Democrats and a number of media figures rushed to Bolton’s defense. ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl framed a Sunday morning segment on the raid as though it was absolute proof that Trump’s Justice Department was being weaponized against anyone he did not like.

The New York Times report appears to be a fair indication that they may have jumped to Bolton’s defense too quickly, as is the fact Bolton has hired high-powered defense attorney Abbe Lowell — whose past and present clients include Hunter Biden and New York Attorney General Letitia James — to represent him.