Federal investigators have intensified their probe into John Bolton, the former national security adviser turned Trump adversary, with new revelations about classified documents seized from his Washington office and Maryland home. The court records, newly unsealed after a media lawsuit, show that FBI agents collected files labeled “secret,” “confidential,” and “classified,” including material related to weapons of mass destruction.
The details paint a striking picture. Among the seized items were “U.S. Government Strategic Communications Plan – Confidential Documents,” “U.S. Mission to the United Nations – Confidential Documents,” and files explicitly labeled as tied to WMDs. Agents also removed computers, drives, and binders, some containing Trump-era material labeled “Trump I-IV.” The searches, carried out August 22, were not limited to Bolton’s professional office; his Bethesda home yielded phones, a flash drive, and even a binder on “statements and reflections to allied strikes.”
For Bolton, a man long immersed in national security affairs across Republican administrations, the question is not merely possession but propriety. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, insists the materials are remnants from Bolton’s years as U.N. ambassador and undersecretary at the State Department in the George W. Bush era—between 1998 and 2006.
Documents of that age, Lowell argues, may well have been declassified or were the kind routinely retained by officials of Bolton’s stature. “An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate,” he declared.
But federal investigators appear unconvinced. Court filings confirm the existence of a grand jury inquiry into potential violations of laws prohibiting the unauthorized retention of defense materials and mishandling of classified records.
The Department of Justice is pursuing whether Bolton’s personal custody of these files—combined with his prior handling of classified manuscript material in 2020—crossed into criminal territory.
There is an irony here. Bolton’s memoir, The Room Where It Happened, became a symbol of his public break with Trump, including allegations of diplomatic mismanagement. Federal censors had already flagged classified content in the manuscript before publication, and now, that very experience is part of the justification for searching his properties.
Another troubling layer: the FBI cited the hacking of Bolton’s AOL account, with intelligence suggesting his emails may have been compromised by foreign adversaries such as China, Russia, or Iran. If classified files were indeed circulating through or near that breach, the implications stretch beyond domestic law into international vulnerability.
Bolton, 76, has kept a private office since 2014, a perch from which he continued policy commentary and political advocacy. Yet in the hands of investigators, his legacy now intersects with the same statutes once applied to others accused of mishandling national secrets.
