He has been a familiar face in American
politics for many years. The one-time
national security adviser for Donald
Trump, John Bolton. The two
spectacularly fell out in 2019. He was
fired, wrote a book, and has been a
willing critic ever since.
>> He doesn't uh prepare because he doesn't
think he needs to.
>> He doesn't do strategy.
>> He's not smart enough to be an
authoritarian.
>> And last year on Skye's Election Night
show, he predicted retribution.
Everything to Trump is personal and uh
and and I think he's very serious when
he says that he wants to use the Justice
Department in the way he says it was
used against him.
>> And the FBI arrived early on Friday
morning, 7:00 a.m. at his suburban
Maryland home. They had a warrant and
went straight in. It's thought he'd
already left for his DC office. And
there was nothing subtle about this
raid.
Boxes taken in. The search, we were
told, was for classified documents and
potential breaches of national security.
Well, the FBI agents have been inside
his home now for around about four
hours, and there's been a little bit of
coming and going. You can see their
vehicles there. One four-wheel drive has
now been backed up against the garage.
Uh we've seen them too taking evidence
boxes inside. It's not clear at this
stage what, if anything, they plan to
seize, but as you can see over the road
uh in this corner of Bethesda, Maryland,
it's causing quite the commotion.
Just a couple of protesters, but with a
tagline they represent many across the
country. Not aligned necessarily to
Bolton's politics, but of the view that
Trump is the danger.
>> Get out. Get out. Move.
>> At his downtown DC office, another raid
and boxes taken away. It's all believed
to be related to his book, The Room
Where It Happened, is a no holes barred
takedown of Trump, a book Trump tried to
block from publication in 2020. There
was an investigation back then about
whether Bolton had breached national
security in writing it. It was dropped
when Biden became president.
What's not clear is what new evidence
has prompted the investigation to be
reopened and the warrant issued.
The president says he was given no prior
knowledge of the raids.
>> I don't know about it. I saw it on
television this morning. I'm not a fan
of John Bolton. He's a a real sort of a
low life.
>> Mr. Bolton arrived back home midafter
afternoon. No comment.
>> Ambassador Bolton, what happened, sir?
>> And no comment either from the FBI about
what they found or what next. Mark
Stone, Sky News in Maryland.