Federal investigators say former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton should be prosecuted for mishandling highly classified material, questioning why the Biden administration quietly shelved the case for years before Trump’s Justice Department revived it, the New York Post reported.

On Friday, FBI agents raided Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, D.C., office, seizing what sources described as “a lot” of sensitive evidence related to allegations he improperly transferred and emailed national security documents through a private server.

The probe stems from intelligence first flagged in 2020 that allegedly showed Bolton transferring White House documents—including to his wife and daughter—before he was fired by Trump in September 2019. Senior FBI sources told The Post the intelligence came from a “very specific capacity” and was considered damning.

Investigators opened a case separate from the earlier, well-publicized inquiry into Bolton’s 2020 memoir The Room Where It Happened, which the Trump administration had accused of revealing national security secrets. But that case, agents say, was blocked by the Biden-era FBI leadership and effectively buried for four years.

“The [Biden administration] had probable cause to know that he had taken material that was detrimental to the national security of the United States, and they made no effort to retrieve it,” one senior FBI official said.

The decision to freeze the probe, officials argue, was politically motivated. Bolton has become one of Trump’s most vocal critics, frequently appearing on cable news to blast his former boss. “That was a friendly administration to [Bolton]. They kept bashing Trump for ‘weaponizing law enforcement,’ but by stopping a righteous investigation, they’re the ones who weaponized it,” another official charged.

FBI Director Kash Patel, confirmed in February, was reportedly unaware of the investigation until a briefing weeks later. Initially assuming agents were referencing the closed book dispute, Patel was told instead that a separate “airtight” case had been blocked at the highest levels.

The raids last week were carried out to collect further proof of alleged mishandling. Agents reported uncovering substantial material at both locations. Sources said Bolton’s family members are not targets of the probe despite earlier intelligence pointing to transfers involving his wife and daughter.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)