Former national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday the affidavit justifying the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home “shouldn’t be released” but that the Justice Department should consider releasing more evidence given the political “firestorm” it has caused.
Bolton told Reuters on Wednesday that he agrees with the DOJ’s concerns about releasing the affidavit used to convince Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart to authorize the search of Mar-a-Lago for classified materials. However, he noted that being secretive in the politically charged environment after the raid may not be in the best interest of the department, and he argued that the DOJ should “be more creative.”
JOHN BOLTON ‘EMBARASSED’ BY THE LOW PRICE OFFERED TO ASSASSINATE HIM
“Probably it shouldn’t be released, and I think DOJ is right. And I think Trump in fact knows they don’t want it released, which is why it’s easy for him to call for it to be released because he knows it’s not going to happen,” Bolton told Reuters on Wednesday.
“Justice is very reluctant to do that for good reasons, but I think they have got to be more creative here given the firestorm politically that they face,” he added.
Trump and numerous Republicans have pressed the DOJ to release more documents related to the Aug. 8 FBI raid. On his Truth Social platform, Trump has demanded the “immediate release” of the affidavit “in the interest of TRANSPARENCY.”
The DOJ counters that making the affidavit public would cause “irreparable harm” to the criminal investigation, subject witnesses to threats, and deter witness cooperation.
Media outlets will make their case to Reinhart in a West Palm Beach, Florida, court on Thursday for the release of the affidavit and other sealed records.
The former White House adviser also decried claims by Trump that the raid is part of a partisan witch hunt against the former president, urging Trump supporters to “calm down” and let the investigation play out.
“There is no evidence there is a partisan motive here,” Bolton said. “I think everybody just ought to calm down, whether you’re pro-Trump or anti-Trump, and let the process work its way through.”
Bolton also revealed on Wednesday that Trump would keep “piles and piles of papers” in the White House dining room and also kept letters from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un near the Oval Office, which the former president liked to show off.
“He kept them in a file in one of the secretary’s offices. … And I know he showed them to people,” Bolton said, adding that several letters to Trump did not go through the proper screenings “for reasons I’m not entirely clear about,” before being stored at the White House.
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Trump and his allies have said he had declassified the records seized by the FBI, and the former president contended that he had a “standing order” during his presidency that “documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them.”
Trump is being investigated for a possible Espionage Act violation and obstruction of justice, according to documents unsealed last week.
