Hours after the FBI raided the home and office of former National Security Advisor John Bolton, US President Donald Trump insisted he had no prior knowledge of the operation.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington on Friday, Trump said he only learned about the search when it was reported on television. “I saw it on television this morning,” The Guardian quoted Trump as saying.
Although Trump reiterated his disdain for his former aide, he distanced himself from the raid. “I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real sort of a lowlife,” Trump said, adding: “He’s not a smart guy. But he could be very unpatriotic. I’m going to find out.”
Trump further claimed he prefers not to be briefed on such operations beforehand. “I tell the group I don’t want to know, but just -- you have to do what you have to do. I don’t want to know about it,” he said. He also noted that he expects to be briefed soon by the Justice Department.
According to The New York Times and other US media outlets, the search was ordered to determine whether Bolton had illegally shared or possessed classified information.
The Washington Post said Bolton was not at home at the time of the raid and has not been charged with a crime.
The now 76-year-old Bolton served as Trump's adviser in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, "The Room Where it Happened."
Legal efforts to block its release for allegedly containing classified information were dropped when Joe Biden replaced Trump in the White House in 2021.
Bolton has since become a highly visible and pugnacious critic of Trump, frequently appearing on television news shows and in print to condemn the man he has called "unfit to be president."
'Retribution presidency'
A longtime critic of Iran's ruling powers, Bolton was a national security hawk and has received death threats from Iranians.
The raid by the FBI came seven months after Trump stripped Bolton -- and multiple other critics -- of federal security details.
Asked recently in an interview with ABC whether he was worried about Trump "coming after" him, Bolton said: "He's already come after me and several others in withdrawing the protection that we had."
"I think it is a retribution presidency," Bolton said.
Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against his perceived enemies and political opponents.
He has stripped former officials of their security clearances and protective details, targeted law firms involved in past cases against him and pulled federal funding from elite universities.
The FBI opened criminal investigations in July into two other prominent Trump critics, former FBI director James Comey and ex-CIA chief John Brennan.
Comey and Brennan were named to their respective positions as head of the FBI and CIA by Democratic president Barack Obama, and they have a contentious history with Trump dating back to his first term in the White House.
Trump was the target of several investigations after leaving the White House and the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home in a probe into mishandling of classified documents.
Trump was also charged with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Neither case came to trial, and the special counsel -- in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president -- dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.
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