Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta weighed in on the FBI’s raid of President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, suggesting Friday night that there’s “some targeting here going on.”
“We don‘t know all the facts here because we don‘t know what the Justice Department said to a magistrate judge in order to get a warrant,” Panetta said during his appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront.”
“But 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 told host Erin Burnett.
Bolton’s Bethesda, Md., home was raided Friday morning. Agents also raided his Washington, D.C., office. The former ambassador, a vocal critic of Trump, was not detained and has not been charged with any crimes.
The search was related to classified materials. The former national security adviser was previously probed over his memoir about his time in the Trump administration, with the president and his allies saying that Bolton disclosed classified information. The investigation was dropped in 2021 during the administration of former President Biden.
Vice President Vance said that the raid was not retribution for Bolton’s sharp criticism of Trump’s administration.
Trump said he was not given advance notice of the raid but criticized Bolton as a “lowlife” who could be “very unpatriotic.”
“He’s not a smart guy. But he could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out. I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning, they did a raid,” the president said Friday morning.
