A court filing released this week shows that classified materials, with some pages marked “secret,” were discovered in the office of former National Security Advisor, and infamous neo-con, John Bolton. The FBI raid of his Washington, D.C. office was conducted last month, based upon a search warrant. On Sept. 23, a description of the documents indicated that some of them were about weapons of mass destruction. Others referenced the U.S. mission to the United Nations, and still others were related to the U.S. government’s strategic communications.
As of yet, what was found on computers and other electronic devices, both at the office and at his home, has not been made public. The search warrants for both locations were in search of evidence on the gathering, transmitting or losing of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act and retaining classified information without permission.
An attorney for Bolton, Abbe Lowell, released a statement: “These are the kinds of ordinary records, many of which are 20 years old or more, that would be kept by a 40-year career official who served at the State Department, as an Assistant Attorney General, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and the National Security Advisor…. An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate was stored or kept by Amb. Bolton.” However, her statement did not claim that there were any “declassified” markings on the classified material—something that would be a normal procedure for material that had been cleared for the book that Bolton was involved in writing about what went on in Trump’s White Office.
