- FBI agents raided former NSA John Bolton's Maryland home in a national security probe
- Bolton criticised Trump’s Ukraine talks, suggesting they aim for a Nobel Peace Prize
- Trump claimed ignorance of the raid and labelled Bolton a lowlife and unpatriotic
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents raided the Maryland home of former US National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton on Friday, in a high-profile national security investigation ordered by FBI director Kash Patel, per a report by New York Post.
Minutes before the FBI agents swarmed Bolton's home, the former NSA took a jibe at US President Donald Trump. He wrote a post on X, saying that despite Trump's meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, there is no progress on the Ukraine conflict, however, the talks "will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize".
However, Trump said that he had no information about the raid on Bolton's house, and only got to know about it through television. He called the former NSA a "lowlife" and a "quiet person" who would only speak on television to say "something bad about Trump".
He accused Bolton of forcing former president George Bush to do the "ridiculous bombings in the Middle East" and added that he "wants to kill people".
"I'm not a fan of John Bolton. He's a real sort of lowlife," Trump told reporters, adding, "He was one of the people that forced Bush to do the ridiculous bombings in the Middle East. He wants to always kill people. And he's very bad at what he does. He's not a smart guy and he might be a very unpatriotic guy. We're going to find out," he said.
Bolton served Trump during his first administration between 2018 and 2019, and has since been vocal in his criticism of the US President's national security and foreign policy, and has appeared on multiple news networks to state his opinion.
The raid was a part of an investigation into an accusation about Bolton including classified information in his 2020 memoir 'The Room Where It Happened'. Trump had tried to legally block the book from hitting the shelves, alleging that it breached a non-disclosure agreement, regardless, the criminal inquiry by the Justice Department was dropped in 2021 by the Biden administration.
The raid comes amid Bolton's criticism of Trump tariffs and Washington's handling of ties with India. In an interview to NDTV, earlier this month, the former NSA had accused Donald Trump of needlessly antagonising India, calling the steep tariffs imposed on New Delhi "a mistake in the bilateral relationship."
