FBI Claims It Found Classified Documents in John Bolton’s Office
“included materials that referenced weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. mission to the United Nations and records related to the U.S. government’s strategic communications.”
A court filing revealed that the FBI discovered classified documents in the Washington, D.C., office of former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
From Politico:
A description of the documents gathered in the Aug. 22 search suggested they included materials that referenced weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. mission to the United Nations and records related to the U.S. government’s strategic communications.
The inventory by an FBI agent doesn’t specify the number of suspected classified documents. But it lists several collections or folders that were labeled “confidential” and some pages marked “secret.” The heading on at least one set marked “confidential” was redacted from the inventory, filed earlier this month in federal court in Washington.
The authorities searched for evidence that matched three felonies:
- Title 18, United States Code, Section 793(d) – Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information: (d)Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or
- Title 18, United States Code, Section 793(e): (e)Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or
- Title 18, United States Code 1924(a) – Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material: (a)Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.
The FBI searched Bolton’s office on August 22.
The filing also included a section devoted to foreign entities intercepting classified documents that Bolton allegedly sent via his private server, but this section is blacked out.
The agents seized computers, hard drives, and any files labeled “Trump.”
We do not know when this investigation started.
Bolton faced a lawsuit during Trump’s first term. The administration accused Bolton on putting “classified information in a book he wrote after leaving” the White House.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration dropped the case in 2021.
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Comments
“I am the walrus, coo coo coo joo.”
“The agents seized computers, hard drives, and any files labeled ‘Trump.'”
TDS is a terrible thing.
Bolton’s problem is that he didn’t place the documents in a vintage Corvette.
He could have hidden them in his mustache. No search warrant would have worked there.
Come on, John, plead the Hillary Exemption… just to make Democrats hypocritically ridicule it as the travesty it is.
Precedent!
No, the Biden exemption- a well meaning, confused, old man.
Exactly. If Biden and Hillary can do it why are they going after Bolton?
Now investigate those he was corresponding to and publishing with, No more mercy for neocons and globalists who put themselves and ‘resistance’ ahead of compliance with proper handling of classified material. Especially so for everyone who, like Bolton, has had their prior clearance revoked.
You would think a guy like Bolton would know better than to retain that stuff, especially after Trump got reelected.
He did and does know better. But he thought it would be okay because Trump couldn’t possibly when re-election, right?
Never trust a man with a mustache.
ISWYDT!
;-{)}}}
I’m beginning to believe anyone with access to classified information”mistakenly” spirits some of out when they have a chance.
Hi, held a fairly high clearance. Nothing I worked with ever left my workspace much less the building.
I was even careful to make sure I didn’t take home many pens or pencils from the worksite. Knowing our master at arms, he probably would’ve done a surprise search of my quarters and accused me of theft. The government property if he found a Skillcraft ballpoint pen.
Anything classified above confidential has a control number. Once a year they audit your safe to make sure all your documents are there and no others, less informal receipts for borrowings, which in turn can be tracked down.
The give away would have been “Pen, Ballpoint, Skillcraft, Blue, Black, or Blue/Black Ink, NSN 072647288946824033579.
More like “ Pen, Ballpoint, Skillcraft, Blue, Black, or Blue/Black Ink, DOES NOT WRITE NSN 072647288946824033579
Not me. Nor 99% of other uniformed personnel granted a clearance. I never ran across such a violation by any uniformed personnel with even the barest ‘high-level’ clearance (TS with further compartmentalized access) in my 26+ year Army career. Civilians on the other hand, particularly appointees, often seemed to view classification procedures and protocols as mere suggestions to be followed or ignored as it suits them.
Government puke civilians, maybe. Everyone I worked (engineers and techies) with took it very seriously. No one accidentally removes classified material from a secure facility.
I’m beginning to believe that the whole system concerning classified information is irretrievably broken. How else to explain why people like Bolton, Biden, and Clinton are able to possess classified information well beyond any justification for their possession. You don’t just “mistakenly” remove documents from a secure location. That takes pre-meditation.
It isn’t just a document with a classification that’s the issue. Might be notes on a legal pad, could be written musings, could be a synopsis written out after returning from a classified brief.
It is the information that’s classified not the piece of paper with a classification stamped on it. If you and I attend a brief on US nuclear posture then leave empty handed …then meet for coffee and write out info about that brief for potential book or any other reasons …the fact there’s no classification stamped on the product of that coffee meeting doesn’t mean it isn’t still classified. It was ‘born’ classified and you and I are also charged as the creators of that product with the duty of putting a classification on it appropriate to the potential damage it could do and then securing in a secure storage facility rated for that classification level and then report it and hand it over to whomever is in charge of running that process for our unit, agency, department. (oversimplified)
Doesn’t negate the fact that the whole federal system of dealing with classified information is broken and is in desperate need of reform.
Sometimes marked classified materials are sneaker-netted from classified email systems to white-world email systems, their security markings removed, and sent to a private unsecured server in a random apartment closet. One easily hacked by, I dunno, KGB or Chinese intelligence. Almost like a dead drop delivery with some measure of “oops” deniability. Good thing THAT never happened. Helps to have a senior FBI official refuse to investigate/prosecute obvious espionage.
Zero Hedge email just received says Comey to be indicted before September 30, the 5 year anniversary of his false testimony to Congress. Excellent news if so.
Big if true, but if the case gets heard before a DC jury, the United States of America won’t get a fair trial.
Eastern District of Virginia.
Thank you.
While the Grand Jury was meeting, Comey took a walk on the beach and saw a cool shell formation shaped like a ham sandwich.
Whoopsie daisy.
he should have stuck to playing the saxaphone
… in a duo with Jazz-man Crockett?
The new rules, not the same as the old rules.
“The inventory by an FBI agent doesn’t specify the number of suspected classified documents.”
I wonder…
When pResident Burden had MAL raided, the FBLie had photographs and an inventory of every dust particle on every document. Where is THAT level of inventory?
Did Bolton’s wife’s underwear drawer get inspected? Did they find brown stains?
Was the raid accompanied by a Shoot to Kill order?
Why haven’t we seen Bolton’s booking photo yet?
Why no 3 am raid with a perp walk and prepositioned Propagandists, er, journaliars, um, media?
Funny how a president, who has the final say what is and what is not classified, can’t be in possession of formerly classified material, but vice president Burden could? In his garage no less.
The president does not required the permission of an underling to declassify anything. The president’ is the sole determinant of what is and what is not classified.
I do think that there is an element of political revenge going on here, as well as in the Leticia James case. However the fact is that there are existing laws in both cases and nothing has been invented or even creatively interpreted in order to charge them. When I was working, we always argued the “But For” position before the judge. That essentially boils down in this case to “sure there’s political revenge, but these are illegal actions, and thus the triggering reason is not relevant.” They cannot argue that the prosecution is purely political because they have actually (allegedly so far) violated a law. The fact that others have violated the applicable laws before and not been prosecuted does not permit them to do that. (“Officer, the car in front of me was speeding and you didn’t give him a ticket”).
Bolton must be horrified that classified materials somehow showed up in his office files, what with the severe tsking he gave Trump after the Mar-A-Lago doc raid. Reportedly, The ‘Stache has now lawyered up with separate counsel.
Bolton has shown himself to be an extremely arrogant and condescending ahole, a member of the ‘I believe I am untouchable’ crowd in Washington who commit crimes on a regular basis. That gay porn star mustache will keep his dance card full in prison.