FBI Raids John Bolton Home and Office in the search for classified documents

Former national security advisor John Boltonwhich served under the first administration of President Donald Trump, was the subject of FBI raids at his home and at his office on Friday morning while the federal authorities sought classified documents.

The raids follow a legendary story between Trump and Bolton which formed the pair exchanging repeated political blows on the public scene.

The news broke out on Friday morning that FBI agents flocked to the Bolton Maryland house and were seen leading boxes, which were followed a few hours later by FBI Raid in Washington, DC of Bolton, DC.

“I’m not a fan of John Bolton,” Trump told journalists on Friday morning after the raids start, adding that he had seen the reports but was not aware of the details on the raid in advance. “It’s a real kind of lowlife.”

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FBI agents left John Bolton’s office in Washington after obtaining documents. (Fox News Digital / Emma Woodhead)

“He is a very quiet person, except on television, if he can say something wrong about Trump,” added Trump. “He’s not an intelligent guy, but he could be a very antipatriotic guy. We will discover it.”

The remarks echo the years of past comments that the pair shared in public forums broadcasting their dissatisfaction with each other, especially after Trump hit Bolton to serve as a national security advisor in 2018.

Fox News Digital has taken a look at the pair relationship since Trump’s Mad Dash to fulfill his first administration in 2017, thanks to his eviction of Bolton as a national security advisor and the current clashes that the couple has since shared.

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“I like (Bolton),” said Trump in 2015 when he appeared on “Meet The Press” only a few weeks after announcing his candidacy for the White House. “I think he is, you know, a hard cookie, knows what he is talking about.”

President Donald Trump said he was not aware of the Raids on the home and John Bolton’s office before being carried out on August 22, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein / The Associated Press)

Bolton was first supposed to be a probable choice to serve as a Trump Secretary of State in December 2016, when Trump was preparing for his first inauguration after his upset victory against Hillary Clinton in this year. Experts presented Bolton as an experienced foreign policy falcon that could strengthen Trump’s diplomatic agenda, and conservative points of sale such as the National Review editorial committee implored Trump’s transition team to choose Bolton, the identifier as a “lasting realistic whose attention is still the national interest”.

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Trump, however, finally typed Rex Tillerson to serve as secretary of state.

Bolton showered Trump with praise for his own confirmation as a national security advisor in 2018, calling the president “a formidable guy” who “knows a lot” when the administration launched in 2017.

John Bolton was a 2018 to 2019 National Trump National Security Advisor for a total of around 17 months. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The warm relationship became more comfortable when Trump announced in 2018 on X that he called Bolton to serve as a national security advisor

“I am happy to announce that, in force of 4/9/18, @ambjohnbolton will be my new national security advisor. I am very grateful for the service of General HR MCMaster who has done exceptional work and will always remain my friend. There will be an official contactor on 4/9.”

“I didn’t really expect this announcement this afternoon,” said Bolton on Fox News shortly after the announcement. “But it is obviously a great honor and always an honor to serve our country.”

FBI agents outside the Maryland home of former national security advisor John Bolton on August 22, 2025. (Fox News Digital)

The pair found common ground on issues such as the withdrawal of the United States of the Complete Complete Action Plan, otherwise known as the Iranian nuclear agreement, which was an agreement of the Obama era with other global powers to limit the nuclear capacities of Iran.

Trump finally withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018, slamming it as a “horrible unilateral agreement that should never have done, never done”, and was supported by his group of advisers in foreign policy, such as Bolton, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Bolton’s relationship with Trump began to turn when he advanced hard line strategies towards American opponents, especially Iran and North Korea. He had long recommended the change of regime in Tehran, although he later specified in his role as national security advisor that American policy was not a change of diet “, but rather a pressure for” a massive change in the behavior of the regime “. Trump, on the other hand, favored a more diplomatic path, exhorting that the defects he saw in the Iranian nuclear agreement of the agreement.

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“John Bolton is absolutely a hawk. If it was him, he would take the whole world at the same time, okay?” Trump said about Bolton in June 2019, highlighting the bubbling tensions between the two on foreign policy.

In April 2018, Bolton suggested that North Korea followed the example of the Libya de denuclucing, which it called the “Libya model” and included the country abandoning its nuclear weapons in 2003 in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Bolton’s comments on such a model for North Korea have sparked a sentence to Pyongyang because they raised concerns, which would cause a potential change in diet.

Trump cited the comment after the steep release of Bolton from the White House in September 2019.

“We were very badly back when John Bolton spoke of the Libyan model … What a disaster,” Trump told journalists at the time.

Days before the eviction of Bolton, Trump was to meet Taliban leaders in order to negotiate peace in Afghanistan, but the meeting never took place and Bolton would have criticized such an effort in conversations with Trump, said media reported at the time.

FBI agents load bags in a vehicle after carrying out a search at the Washington, DC office, former national security advisor John Bolton on August 22, 2025. (Fox News Digital / Emma Woodhead)

Bolton was ousted from his role as national security advisor on September 10, 2019, Trump characterizing departure as a dismissal, and Bolton saying that he had submitted his resignation and was not dismissed.

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“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer necessary in the White House,” tweeted Trump in 2019. “I do not agree with many of his suggestions, like others in the administration, and therefore I asked John his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will name a new next national security advisor.”

Bolton retaliated on X that he “proposed to resign last night and President Trump said:” Let’s talk about tomorrow “.”

The former national security advisor was replaced by Robert C. O’Brien, Trump and Bolton continuing their controversial relationships years later.

The Raid on the home of Bolton is one of the “first stadiums of an underway investigation into John Bolton”, said Vice-President JD Vance on Friday during an appearance on “Meet The Press”. Bolton was not arrested or in detention in the middle of the raids early in the morning.

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Research is focused on potential classified documents that agents think that Bolton could still have, Fox News reported.