Authorities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have confirmed the discovery of highly secret documents obtained in a raid of former national security advisor John Bolton’s office earlier this year.
Bolton, who advised President Donald Trump before turning his back on him, was reportedly in possession of documents marked “secret” which agents recovered from his office in downtown Washington, D.C. last month.
In court filings, agents state that the documents include discussions about weapons of mass destruction, a U.S. mission to the United Nations, and records related to strategic communications channels utilized by the U.S. government.
An inventory provided to the court doesn’t list the number of documents obtained. Others found in Bolton’s possession were marked “confidential,” and the heading of at least one document was so sensitive that it was redacted in a public itemization.
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The Aug. 22 raid of Bolton’s office ran concurrently with a raid of his home in Bethesda, Maryland. FBI agents reported an inventory from the search that did not list more classified documents; however, a number of electronic devices were confiscated, including several computers.
Search warrants presented by the FBI indicate that agents were pursuing evidence related to three felonies: gathering, transmitting, or losing national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act and retaining classified information without permission, Politico reported.
During Trump’s first term, the former national security advisor was sued for allegedly violating his security clearance by writing a book about his time in the administration. A federal judge warned Bolton at the time that some of the disclosures made in his book may have been criminal.
However, a U.S. Justice Department investigation into Bolton was dropped by the Biden administration in 2021.
It’s unclear when the investigation into Bolton may have restarted. FBI agents describe in court how Bolton’s AOL address was previously hacked by a foreign entity while declining to describe how the U.S. became aware of the activity.
Four categories of classified documents were listed in the inventory, which was only obtained after Politico and other outlets sued for access: travel memo documents with a “secret” label; confidential documents from the U.S. mission to the U.N.; confidential documents related to strategic communications; and classified documents related to weapons of mass destruction.
The findings underscore the trouble Bolton now finds himself in; the government has a history of charging individuals who have retained documents categorized as “secret” or “confidential.”
Bolton’s case follows earlier raids on the homes of President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, both of whom were alleged to have retained similarly sensitive records. Trump dismissed his own case after winning the 2024 election, while special counsel Robert Hur declined to bring charges against Biden, describing him as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” whom jurors would view with sympathy.
