The FBI on Friday raided the Maryland home and Washington office of John Bolton, who served as national security adviser under US President Donald Trump, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.
The searches were part of an investigation into the handling of classified information. Bolton has not been charged and was not detained, the individual told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the probe publicly.
The move came shortly after Bolton openly criticized Trump’s trade policies toward India, particularly the additional 25 percent tariffs on Russian oil imports that raised the total levy to 50 percent.
Speaking ahead of Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, Bolton warned that such measures risked pushing India closer to Moscow and Beijing.
“When Trump slapped tariffs on India for buying Russian oil, but not China which also purchases Russian oil, it may have pushed India further into the Beijing-Moscow axis. This lack of focus by the Trump Admin is an unforced error,” Bolton wrote on X.
Bolton, who served as Trump’s third national security adviser for 17 months, often clashed with him over issues including Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea, reported AP.
He later faced scrutiny for his memoir The Room Where It Happened, which the Justice Department initially claimed contained classified information before dropping its case in 2021. The book depicted Trump as “grossly ill-informed” on foreign policy, accusing him of seeing “conspiracies behind rocks” and lacking basic knowledge of governance.
Trump dismissed the book’s claims, calling Bolton a “crazy” warmonger who “would have led the country into World War Six.”
In past interviews, Bolton described Trump as an “aberrational president” and argued that the India-US relationship was in “a very bad place.” He accused Washington of taking a “confused” approach toward New Delhi.
Bolton noted that Indians were “incandescent” at being targeted with a 25 percent penalty while China, a far larger buyer of Russian energy, faced no such sanctions. He warned that this strategy could backfire, especially with Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to visit India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi planning a trip to China later this year.
“Obviously both Moscow and Beijing are going to try to bring India closer to them. I mean, this could have negative consequences (for the US), because it wasn’t well thought through,” he said.
In an interview with ABC earlier this month, Bolton also alleged that Trump had targeted him personally. “I think it is a retribution presidency,” he said, claiming Trump even removed his security detail in retaliation.
