Panetta suggests Bolton was targeted over past Trump criticisms
The article reports that former CIA Director Leon Panetta suggested John Bolton was targeted due to his past criticisms of former President Donald Trump following an FBI raid on Bolton’s Maryland home. The raid, conducted early friday morning, was part of a national security investigation related to classified information allegedly leaked in Bolton’s 2020 book, *The Room Where It Happened*. The operation was authorized by FBI Director Kash Patel based on intelligence provided by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Panetta implied the raid was politically motivated, noting trump’s sensitivity to Bolton’s criticisms. Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser before being dismissed in 2019, has been publicly critical of Trump’s foreign policy efforts sence leaving office. The investigation into Bolton’s book resumed with the recent raid after having been dropped during the Biden administration. Bolton was neither charged nor detained in connection with the search.
Panetta suggests Bolton was targeted over past Trump criticisms
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta suggested on Saturday that John Bolton was targeted over his vocal criticisms of President Donald Trump after the FBI raided the former national security adviser’s Maryland home just ahead of the weekend.
Early Friday morning, FBI agents conducted an operation at Bolton’s Bethesda residence as part of a high-profile national security investigation, which is believed to be about classified information Bolton was accused of illegally leaking in his 2020 book The Room Where It Happened. The raid was ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, who was provided intelligence by CIA Director John Ratcliffe that led to the search warrant.
Weighing in on the raid, Panetta, who served under former President Barack Obama, implied that it was politically motivated.
“When you stand back and you look at the criticism that John Bolton has made and you look at the president and how sensitive he is about having those criticisms, particularly from somebody who was in his administration, it‘s pretty hard not to come to the conclusion that there‘s some targeting here going on,” Panetta said on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront.
Bolton served as Trump’s national security adviser in his first term before being fired in 2019 following numerous foreign policy disagreements with the president, particularly over potential peace deals or nuclear deals with North Korea, Iran, and the Taliban.
Since Trump reentered the Oval Office in January, Bolton has remained critical of the president’s work mediating peace negotiations between multiple countries, claiming Trump merely “wants a Nobel Peace Prize more than anything else.”
Those peace deals have included the conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia, Rwanda and the Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and India and Pakistan. Trump also mediated a ceasefire between Iran and Israel in their 12-Day War earlier this summer, and has been pursuing a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine war.
The Friday raid seemingly reopens an investigation launched in 2020 over Bolton’s book The Room Where It Happened, which he moved to publish before being given approval from the National Security Council, as is required in order to ensure classified information isn’t included.
FBI RAIDS JOHN BOLTON’S HOME IN MARYLAND
That inquiry, begun under the Department of Justice near the end of Trump’s first term, was dropped a year later under the Biden administration.
Bolton was not charged or detained following the raid on Friday.
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