For anyone who missed it, John Bolton’s home was raided a few weeks ago on suspicion of retaining classified government records.
The FBI affidavit that formed the basis for the warrant has been released:
In what isn’t redacted, in the affidavit, there’s a bit of sparring between the person at the National Security Council who is reviewing his book (Ellen Knight) about the level of detail in his book, and how that might imply that Bolton still has materials that he shouldn’t have.
That doesn’t appear to lay a sufficient cause to raid Bolton’s house and take all of his stuff.
There’s a large, redacted portion headlined, “Hack of Bolton AOL Account by Foreign Entity”. We probably have to assume that this forms the bulk of the basis for belief in Bolton’s guilt.
So, in some way, the US government has gained access to something that was (purportedly) hacked by a foreign government (e.g. Russia, Israel, etc.) and it allowed the current administration to get revenge against John Bolton.
That would be my read of the document.
My second, and more amusing, takeaway is that it quotes Bolton discussing the problems of people communicating classified information over Signal as evidence that Bolton knew his ethical and legal duties. I trust that those others will be prosecuted, the same as they’re prosecuting Bolton…
