Federal investigators uncovered documents marked secret and confidential in the downtown Washington, D.C. office of former National Security Adviser John Bolton, according to court filings released Tuesday.
The revelation comes amid an ongoing Justice Department probe into whether Bolton mishandled national defense information during and after his tenure in government.
The search, carried out on Aug. 22 and authorized by U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, yielded “travel memo documents with pages labeled secret” as well as confidential records concerning the U.S. mission to the United Nations, strategic communications plans, and materials referencing weapons of mass destruction.
The FBI also seized laptops and other electronic devices, though the contents of those devices were not disclosed in the publicly available inventory.
The filings confirm that federal agents were investigating potential violations of the Espionage Act, including gathering or losing national defense information and retaining classified documents without authorization. While the number of documents found was not specified, the inventory suggests multiple folders of material that bore classification markings.
“Secret” is the middle tier of the U.S. classification system and indicates information that could cause serious damage to national security if disclosed, while “confidential” is the lowest tier, applied to records whose release could cause some damage.
A parallel search at Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland, home did not identify classified materials, though agents seized computers and electronics there as well.
The affidavit supporting the warrants, filed Aug. 21, cited concerns that Bolton may have mishandled information that was later exploited by a foreign intelligence service, including emails he sent while working at the White House. Court filings indicate that Bolton’s AOL email account was hacked, but the nature of the intrusion and the foreign power involved have not been revealed.
The investigation appears to revisit questions that arose after Bolton’s 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, was published. At the time, the Trump administration sued to block the book’s release, claiming it contained classified material.
A federal judge said Bolton’s conduct could be criminal, but the Justice Department declined to pursue charges and dropped its lawsuit under the Biden administration in 2021.
It remains unclear what triggered the renewed probe, though special counsel Jack Smith’s failed prosecution of Trump for retaining classified records at Mar-a-Lago has left comparisons unavoidable.
Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, insisted there was no wrongdoing, arguing the materials were cleared during the pre-publication review of Bolton’s memoir and that many documents date back to his years of service under President George W. Bush.
“These materials, many of which are documents that had been previously approved as part of a pre-publication review for Ambassador Bolton’s book, were reviewed and closed years ago,” Lowell said in a statement.
He added that some of the documents stretch back more than two decades, from Bolton’s time as Under Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and insisted that an objective review would show nothing inappropriate in his record-keeping.
The Justice Department, however, has argued that the potential exposure of classified material—even old records—represents a continuing risk. Classified designations do not expire automatically, and records related to nuclear or weapons of mass destruction programs are considered particularly sensitive regardless of age.
The political dimension of the investigation has also drawn attention. Bolton, once one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, became one of his fiercest critics after leaving the White House in 2019. Trump has repeatedly derided him as a “warmonger” and accused him of undermining U.S. interests abroad.
Justice Department lawyers released redacted versions of the search warrants, affidavits, and inventories after several media organizations petitioned for access, citing the public interest in understanding how national security cases are being pursued.
The documents emphasize the stakes: if Bolton knowingly retained classified records outside secure channels, he could face the same felony offenses once leveled against Trump.
For now, Bolton maintains that the documents were innocuous remnants of a four-decade career in government.
Whether the courts will agree remains an open question, one that could test the boundaries of accountability for senior officials once entrusted with the nation’s most sensitive secrets.