FBI seized documents described as ‘classified’ in search of Bolton’s office

FBI agents seized several documents they described as “secret,” “confidential” or “classified” during the search of former national security adviser John Bolton’s downtown Washington office last month, according to newly unsealed court records.

The items include documents pertaining to weapons of mass destruction, U.S. interests at the United Nations, and strategic government communications, investigators said in a cataloged list of what was collected during the search.

The inventory, unsealed by a federal magistrate judge in Maryland, was filed after agents descended upon Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland, home and office Aug. 22 as part of an investigation into whether he illegally kept classified documents that came into his possession through his role in President Donald Trump’s first term.

Bolton, a veteran diplomat and security expert who has more recently emerged as one of the president’s fiercest critics, has not spoken publicly about the probe. His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday.

Lowell previously described a similar inventory of items seized from Bolton’s house as “ordinary records of a 40-year career serving this country” when that list was unsealed this month.

That earlier list — which detailed seized items including reams of documents including folders labeled “Trump I-IV” and papers titled “statements and reflections to allied strikes” — did not indicate whether any of those materials bore classification stamps or other markings that led agents to believe they were improperly in Bolton’s possession.

In contrast, the catalog of materials seized at Bolton’s office in Washington includes entries like “U.S. Mission to the United Nations — Confidential Documents” and “Weapons of Mass Destruction Classified Documents.” The search warrant records from that search do not say what exactly prompted agents to make the determination that they were classified or confidential.

“Law enforcement is actively reviewing evidence and interviewing witnesses,” prosecutors said in filings last month surrounding the warrant material’s release, which came in response to a request in court by a coalition of media organizations including The Washington Post.

The Justice Department is investigating Bolton for recent accusations that he retained and leaked sensitive material, making him the latest of Trump’s political adversaries to find themselves targeted by federal investigators.

Prosecutors have also launched criminal inquiries into Trump critics in recent months, including New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), former FBI director James B. Comey, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — and are facing increasing pressure from the president to secure indictments.

In a social media post Saturday, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to swiftly move to prosecute several of his enemies, declared them “guilty as hell,” and decried the length of time it has taken for charges to be filed. He did not specifically mention Bolton by name, though he called out others like James, Comey and Schiff.

The investigation into Bolton’s handling of classified material is being overseen by the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Maryland. Agents believed they would find classified records in his possession, in part, because of information they said they’d learned about a foreign adversary hacking into his AOL email account years ago, according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed this month.

Investigators detailed that hack in several pages of the application they filed last month to secure a warrant to search Bolton’s home and office. However, that section of the affidavit is redacted entirely except for the section’s header: “Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity.”

During Trump’s first term, the Justice Department also pursued an investigation of Bolton for allegedly divulging classified government material in his 2020 book, “The Room Where it Happened,” which offered a withering portrait of Trump as an “erratic” and “stunningly uninformed” leader.

That inquiry did not result in charges at the time. Officials who described the current probe of Bolton’s activities said its scope included both concerns over Bolton’s book and the newer allegations involving disclosures of sensitive material.

Trump was charged in 2023 with illegally holding onto classified material under the same statute under which Bolton is now being investigated — a violation of the Espionage Act. A federal judge in Florida later dismissed the Trump case citing issues with the legality of special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment to prosecute the matter.

Former President Joe Biden also faced an investigation for retention of classified documents at his home in Wilmington and office at the University of Pennsylvania. A special counsel appointed in that case determined no criminal charges were warranted in the matter.

Trump administration officials have denied any political motivations for pursuing the Bolton investigation.

“We don’t think that we should throw people — even if they disagree with us politically, maybe especially if they disagree with us politically — in prison,” Vice President JD Vance told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview last month. “You should let the law drive these determinations, and that’s what we’re doing.”