Overview

• The affidavit says agents had probable cause that classified and national defense information was being illegally kept at John Bolton’s Maryland home, though he has not been charged.
• A roughly ten-page section titled “Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity” is fully redacted, with prior reporting saying investigators obtained some Bolton emails from a foreign intelligence service.
• FBI inventories show agents seized phones, computers, hard drives and documents during August searches of Bolton’s home, and federal investigators also searched his Washington, D.C., office.
• Court records recount that an NSC official in 2020 flagged “significant amounts” of classified, including top-secret material, in Bolton’s draft book and questioned whether he kept notes from his White House service.
• Reporting indicates the Biden Justice Department earlier reviewed related material and declined charges at that time due to concerns about the sensitivity of how the intelligence was obtained.