Trump’s FBI Raid of John Bolton’s Home Looks Like a “Five Alarm Fire”
National security lawyer Bradley Moss says we can’t judge the full significance of the action until we know whether Bolton committed some kind of offense—even a minor, inadvertent one—that could be the basis for a preliminary FBI effort to recoup documents in his possession. In this scenario, says Moss, it would be legitimate for the FBI to seek them.
But Moss also notes that it’s not clear why the FBI didn’t arrange with Bolton’s lawyer to collect any documents in a far less dramatic way. Did Bolton refuse to turn over classified documents, as (you may recall) Trump did? Maybe. But if not, Moss says, then the dramatic raid could constitute a serious abuse of power even if there’s some basis for action. (Obviously if there’s no basis at all then it’s even worse, but the court authorization suggests there may be something here.)
“If this is all just a political show to embarrass Bolton on something he would otherwise have cooperated on, it’s a rank abuse of power and one more step toward complete capture of law enforcement by Trump,” Moss told me. “This is pretty darn close to a five-alarm fire if it’s what we fear it is.”
