FBI members transportation boxes to the location of the erstwhile White House nationalist information advisor John Bolton arsenic it is searched by FBI, successful Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., August 22, 2025.
Tasos Katopodis | Reuters
The law-enforcement probe of erstwhile Trump nationalist information advisor John Bolton is "in the precise aboriginal stages," Vice President JD Vance said connected the heels of the FBI's raid of Bolton's Maryland location connected Friday morning.
Vance, successful a caller interrogation with NBC News' Kristen Welker, said that classified documents are "certainly portion of" that probe, but "there's a wide interest astir Ambassador Bolton."
Bolton is not being targeted due to the fact that of his disapproval of President Donald Trump, Vance told Welker successful the interview, acceptable to aerial Sunday connected "Meet the Press."
"If we were trying to bash that, we would conscionable propulsion retired prosecutions willy-nilly, similar the Biden medication [Department of Justice] did," helium said.
Bolton, who served arsenic Trump's nationalist information advisor from April 2018 done September 2019.
FBI agents searched his bureau successful Washington, D.C., successful summation to his Bethesda home, connected Friday.
"I volition accidental we're gonna fto that probe proceed," Vance said.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during a Republican governmental lawsuit astir the One Big Beautiful Bill astatine ALTA Refrigeration successful Peachtree City, Georgia, U.S., August 21, 2025.
Alyssa Pointer | Reuters
"What I tin archer you is that, dissimilar the Biden DOJ and the Biden FBI, our instrumentality enforcement agencies are going to beryllium driven by instrumentality and not by politics," Vance said.
"And so, if we deliberation that Ambassador Bolton has committed a crime, of course, yet prosecutions volition come," the vice president said.
"This is each portion of gathering evidence, trying to recognize thing that we're disquieted about."
Trump told reporters Friday greeting that helium was unaware of the raid connected Bolton's location until helium saw it reported connected television.
Trump besides called Bolton a "lowlife."
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NBC News reported earlier Friday that the probe of Bolton is eyeing aggregate instances of the usage of classified documents successful leaks to quality media.
The probe began during the Biden medication but was dropped by the Justice Department astatine immoderate constituent earlier President Joe Biden near bureau successful January, NBC reported.
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