On Friday, the FBI executed a search of the Maryland home of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who left his first administration on bitter terms, only to become one of Trump’s more prominent Republican foes.

Some sources are claiming the raid is part of a “national security investigation in search of classified records” (though details and justifications are so far not being presented) and Trump’s MAGA-loyalist FBI Director Kash Patel is celebrating the move on social media.

It is unclear what the feds did, or didn’t, find. Lawfare’s Ben Wittes, who was on the scene of the FBI raid, tells Rolling Stone: “I didn’t see them leaving with stuff,” but that “I was pushed back and didn’t have a direct view.” Wittes adds he did not see Bolton himself this morning.

Lawfare’s Ben Wittes was the first person on the scene of the John Bolton raid. This is what he saw: www.thebulwark.com/p/fbi-action… — The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2025-08-22T12:26:24.506Z

Whatever Bolton, a Bush-era Iraq War propagandist and regime-change enthusiast who later joined the first Trump White House as a top aide, does or doesn’t have in his house is almost irrelevant to what’s going on here: An openly lawless administration and Republican Party that pretends to hate the “Deep State” is merely expanding it, repurposing it to punish Trump’s personal nemeses. Republicans, of course, worked to shield Trump from any accountability in his post-presidency after Mar-a-Lago was raided by the feds because he wouldn’t stop hoarding classified documents.

But more importantly, Trump’s FBI has been going after Bolton for the same reason this administration launched, at the president’s explicit direction, a criminal investigation into a man whose only crime seems to be his refusal to help Trump steal an election. He pissed off Trump, so now he has to suffer. In the new authoritarian age of Trump, that is true for so many on the federal government’s ever-growing enemies list, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a famous warmonger or a powerless civilian.

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It’s not about John Bolton; it is about everyone else.

Trump’s former national security adviser did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment Friday morning.

The president and his team have wanted to prosecute Bolton ever since Trump’s first term in the Oval Office, arguing that Bolton’s 2020 memoir criticizing Trump was grounds enough. Per CNN, sources say the search of Bolton’s house was related to an investigation into whether he shared classified information in that book.

According to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Trump and his lieutenants this year have wanted to find a variety of ways to put the screws to Bolton and other high-profile foes — to make examples of them, whether or not criminal charges or a trial ever actually occur.

In January, one of Trump’s first acts as a reelected president was to revoke Bolton’s Secret Service detail, which President Joe Biden had extended, citing an alleged Iranian scheme to assassinate Bolton. (It’s worth noting that Iran’s government allegedly wants to murder Bolton specifically because of things President Trump had him do.) Trending Stories Lil Nas X Hospitalized for Possible Overdose After Roaming L.A. Streets and Charging at Police Why Ava Max Disappeared: ‘I Almost Lost Myself’ Brent Hinds, Mastodon Co-Founder and Former Guitarist, Dead at 51 Thanks, Trump: ICE Just Gassed a Public School Into Submission

During the 2024 election, as Rolling Stone previously reported, Trump would joke to close allies that he wouldn’t mind it if Iranian assassins took out Bolton, who Trump loathes just that much.

“That’s terrible, I shouldn’t say that,” Trump would privately say, with a smirk on his face.