Bolton Probe Focuses On Emails Obtained By Hostile Foreign Spy Service

At least one dimension of the federal investigation of former Trump national security advisor John Bolton focuses on personal emails of his that were obtained by a foreign government spy agency — with those personal emails said to have contained classified information, the New York Times has reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the probe. The investigation gained steam during the Biden administration, and quietly brewed before culminating in last week’s FBI raid on Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland home. He has not yet been charged with any crime. 

During Biden’s term, the US government found that an adversarial government’s spy agency had come into possession of emails that Bolton appeared to have sent to close associates, using an unclassified delivery method. The emails seemed to include information that Bolton had learned from classified documents, and he was sending the emails to various people who were helping him gather information for use in his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.”

As Bolton’s book was about to be released, the Trump administration sued to delay its publishing. Around that same time, the Justice Department started a criminal probe to determine if Bolton had mishandled classified material via revelations included in the book. The Times sources say the search of Bolton’s home was aimed at determining if he had any material in his possession that confirmed the authenticity of the emails that were in the hands of the foreign spy agency.

The information that ended up in foreign-government hands apparently did not end up being included in his book, the Times sources say. However, after the first Trump administration sought to thwart the book’s release, Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that “Defendant Bolton likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations.” Nonetheless, he didn’t attempt to block the book’s distribution, saying “the horse is already out of the barn,” referring to the fact that excerpts had been published and 200,000 copies had already shipped.  

John Bolton has done a lot of damage to the life, liberty and treasure of so many Americans. If he also is found to have broken the law regarding national security, it will be some small form of justice for the evil he has perpetrated over the years.

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 22, 2025

After the warrant was served at Bolton’s home on Friday morning, President Trump disclaimed any knowledge of the investigation. He did, however, share his disdain for Bolton, whom he’d hired despite prescient warnings from people like Sen. Rand Paul: 

“I don’t know about it. I saw it on television this morning. I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real sort of lowlife… I know nothing about it…I tell [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi], and I tell the group, I don’t want to know about it. You have to do what you have to do.“ 

In another development, the Times reported that Bolton is negotiating with criminal defense attorney Abbe Lowell, whose current high-profile clients include New York state attorney general Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. James is facing federal grand jury scrutiny of her civil fraud case against Trump, which resulted in a $500 million fine that was thrown out earlier this month. Trump fired Cook on Monday, after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte asked the DOJ to investigate her for suspected mortgage fraud.