John R. Bolton, President Donald J. Trump’s former national security adviser, is reportedly now under federal investigation for allegedly mishandling classified information that was later intercepted by foreign intelligence services, according to a New York Times report citing people familiar with the matter.
The probe centers on emails Bolton sent over an unsecured system while preparing his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened.
Federal investigators reportedly learned that a rival government had acquired messages containing “sensitive information” originating from classified material Bolton accessed during his time at the White House.
The emails, according to sources, were sent by Bolton to friends and confidants who were assisting him in developing his book. Those messages appeared to draw directly from restricted documents he reviewed as national security adviser.
It remains unclear which foreign intelligence service managed to obtain the information, but officials described the matter as significant enough to trigger an FBI raid on both his Maryland residence and his Washington office last week.
Bolton, who was at home when agents arrived at his Bethesda property, was not arrested. He has declined to publicly address the allegations, refusing comment when contacted by the Times.
The revelations highlight a sharp irony for the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who has made a second career of chastising Mr. Trump for alleged mishandling of government business.
Bolton has become one of the president’s loudest critics on the right, frequently casting himself as a principled guardian of national security. Yet the federal investigation suggests that it was Bolton himself who may have allowed foreign adversaries to gain access to sensitive American secrets.
Since his acrimonious departure from the Trump administration, Bolton has excoriated the president he once served, describing him as unfit for the office.
In one instance, Bolton mocked Trump as having a “mind full of mush.” Such rhetoric earned him glowing coverage from many in the mainstream press, but the new allegations could raise uncomfortable questions about his own judgment and credibility.
The FBI’s search of Bolton’s properties underscores the seriousness with which federal authorities are treating the case.
Officials reportedly focused on whether classified materials were improperly transmitted to people outside the government and subsequently compromised by foreign spies. That such communications may have occurred over an unclassified system — and then were exploited by a rival nation — places the matter among the most sensitive breaches in recent years.
While the outcome of the investigation remains uncertain, the situation illustrates the broader challenge of safeguarding classified information in an era where personal political projects often collide with matters of state.
Bolton’s memoir, which he used to criticize his former boss and elevate his own role, was both commercially successful and politically explosive. But if investigators confirm that it was also the catalyst for a leak to foreign adversaries, Bolton may face consequences far more severe than public criticism.
For now, the Trump administration’s Justice Department has declined to comment publicly on the raid or the scope of the inquiry. Bolton, once a fixture of Republican national security circles and a hawkish defender of American power abroad, finds himself at the center of an investigation suggesting that his own actions may have endangered the very interests he long claimed to protect.
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