The FBI found classified documents at former national security adviser John Bolton’s office during a recent federal raid on the Washington, D.C., location, according to court filings.
Agents raided Bolton’s downtown office in late August as part of an investigation believed to be surrounding classified information Bolton was accused of illegally leaking in his 2020 book, The Room Where It Happened.
On Tuesday, newly filed court documents shed further light on the probe. Those files recorded the FBI’s apprehension of materials marked classified, “confidential,” and “secret” during the agency’s operation, according to Politico.
Some of the documents from Bolton, who served during the first Trump administration, related to weapons of mass destruction and were marked classified; some were travel memo records that bore a secret label; and others were confidential files that referenced the U.S. mission to the United Nations and the government’s strategic communications.
An attorney for Bolton told Politico the records were cleared for Bolton’s use years ago and that many of them were more than two decades old.
“These are the kinds of ordinary records, many of which are 20 years old or more, that would be kept by a 40-year career official who served at the State Department, as an Assistant Attorney General, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and the National Security Advisor,” Abbe Lowell said. “Specifically, the documents with classification markings from the period 1998-2006 date back to Amb. Bolton’s time in the George W. Bush Administration.”
The same day the FBI raided Bolton’s office, agents searched his Maryland residence as part of its investigation. The FBI affidavit used to execute the search warrant alleges he used a private email account that was hacked by a “foreign entity” and wrongly shared classified information, according to documents viewed by Axios. Agents also seized Bolton’s computers, hard drives, and files labeled “Trump.”
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The FBI is seeking evidence that Bolton, who became a harsh critic of Trump after being pushed out of his national security position, violated three statutes: Section 793 of Title 18, the Espionage Act, which criminalizes the unauthorized retention or transmission of national defense information; and Section 1924, which prohibits the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the FBI for comment.
