Having concocted incessant lawfare attacks including unsupportable felony charges to remove his candidacy from state election ballots, bankrupt and imprison him, frame him on phony Russia collusion charges, attempts to impeachment him twice, and stage an armed early morning Aug. 8, 2022 raid on his personal Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, Donald Trump's panicked political adversaries worry greatly that he will now turn such tactics of destruction to boomerang back on perpetrators.
Here, through projections born of their own unprincipled devices, corrective legal measures to restore justice are readily decried as being motivated by personal and political payback.
Might both be true?
Perhaps a combination of the "what goes around, comes around" and "glass house resident stone fight" consequences?
Take, for example, the recent FBI raid in search of unauthorized classified documents at the home of former George W. Bush administration U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.
Bolton, you may recall, served as Trump's national security advisor during his first term, prior to a contentious exit that embittered their relationship.
Bolton has recently been critical of Trump's foreign policies, questioning his decision to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the beginning of crucial negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine.
The president has denied any direct role in or knowledge of the Bolton investigation, and told reporters during a visit to a museum in Washington, D.C., that he did not know about the Bolton record search beforehand and would be briefed on the matter.
Trump told reporters when asked about the search, "[Bolton’s] not a smart guy. but he could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out," adding, "I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning, they did a raid."
FBI agents reportedly searched Bolton's Bethesda, Maryland house, and thereafter went to his downtown D.C. office looking for "highly sensitive" classified documents sent to his family from a private email server while working in the Trump White House.
Shortly after the raid began, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X "NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission."
Apparently referring to Patel's posting, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi posted on X that "America’s safety isn't negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always," and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino also appearing to refer to those posts, wrote on X that "Public corruption will not be tolerated."
Bolton has become a fierce Trump critic, as highlighted in his book released June 23, 2020, "The Room Where It Happened" about his White House experience which alleges that the president frequently prioritized his personal political interests over national security.
The memoir also described instances of what Bolton considered misconduct or incompetence in the administration’s handling of international affairs.
Even prior to the book's publication, the Trump-era Justice Department sued Bolton, arguing that he had violated prepublication review requirements by moving ahead without a final written clearance — a process meant to ensure that no classified information was disclosed.
As reported by NBC News, the Biden administration's Justice Department headed by then-U.S. Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland dropped its civil case against Bolton over his book in 2021 based on an unlikelihood of prevailing in court.
Ironically, Bolton has criticized Trump's handling of classified documents after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, while also taking strongly opposing positions against agency director Patel.
Bolton’s Dec. 10 Wall Street Journal editorial was headlined, "Kash Patel Doesn’t Belong at the FBI," claiming that "His puffery was characteristic of the résumé inflation we had detected when Mr. Trump pressed him on us. We found he had exaggerated his role in cases he worked on as a Justice Department lawyer before joining Mr. Nunes’s committee staff."
Whereas a source close to Bolton told NBC News they believe the search on his home was in response to his frequent criticism of the Trump administration, including in his book is "retribution, pure and simple," this claim is challenged by top level White House and Congressional GOP officials.
Vice President JD Vance told NBC News' "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker that there were "broad concerns" about Bolton’s behavior that extended beyond classified documents, stating: "Our law enforcement agencies are going to be driven by law and not by politics. "If we think that Ambassador Bolton has committed a crime, of course, eventually prosecutions will come."
Asked about Bolton’s confidential record search, U.S. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in an interview on Fox News, "So I don’t think this is retribution, I think this is accountability."
Comer added, "We'll see if, for no reason, they raided his house just to embarrass John Bolton, like the Democrats did to President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, then I think that they should bear some criticism. But right now, I have confidence in Kash Patel, and I don't believe he would do anything without having ample evidence to move forward."
So yes, we haven't – and we shouldn't have – heard the last of this.
Whatever we may personally think of John Bolton's policy disagreements and criticisms of President Trump, none should nevertheless wish for a return to lawfare weaponization of our justice system incessantly used against him which have destroyed confidence of fairness and nearly torn our nation apart into warring camps.
We can't allow legitimate investigations into possible criminal acts essential to safeguard lawful society to devolve into politics of payback where, as Lavrenty Beria told Joseph Stalin, "Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime."
Let the real evidence prevail.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.