The FBI's early morning raid on former national security adviser John Bolton's home was likely connected to a federal judge's earlier finding that he had allegedly included classified material in his 2020 memoir, Newsmax senior judicial analyst and retired judge Andrew Napolitano said Friday.
Bolton's 2020 book, "The Room Where It Happened," was at the center of a legal dispute after the Justice Department argued he failed to clear the manuscript before publication, Napolitano told Newsmax's "National Report."
He pointed to U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth's ruling in that case, which concluded Bolton had included classified material. The judge, however, allowed the book to move forward because it was already in circulation.
"Judge Lamberth's opinion was scathing," said Napolitano, adding that the judge looked at Bolton and said that "You probably should expect a criminal matter to come out of this."
"That's what was commenced this morning," he added.
However, Napolitano explained that the current investigation is not about the book's publication but whether Bolton retained classified information after his security clearance was revoked.
"What is being pursued today is that he lost his security clearance," he said. "Did he still continue to possess national security secrets without a security clearance? That's what the FBI is looking for this morning."
Napolitano added that the FBI investigators were most likely searching for electronic records.
"It would probably be a virtual form of documents or electronic data," he said. "I would imagine that they are looking for mobile devices, desktops ... he is no longer, once he lost his national security clearance, entitled to possess them."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.