FBI agents raided the home and office of former Trump national security advisor-turned-critic John Bolton Friday morning. The agency is reportedly investigating whether Bolton sent classified documents to his family from a private email server while working in the White House during the first Trump administration.
The raid has reignited a long-standing dispute between President Donald Trump and Bolton, which may explain why the corporate media is freaking out about the FBI’s actions and framing it as retribution.
On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Emily Jashinsky, host of MK Media’s After Party, to discuss the Bolton raid and the left’s hypocritical reaction to it.
The Raid
In September 2019, President Trump tweeted that he had “informed” his then-national security adviser the previous night “that his services are no longer needed at the White House” because he “disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions.”
The tweet followed months of reports about Bolton’s rocky relationship with the president and conflicting foreign policy views, but he did not waste any time contradicting his former boss’ framing. “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow,’” Bolton retorted on Twitter.
Fast forward to 2020, and the Trump administration was on the losing end of a lawsuit to stop the publication of Bolton’s memoir, alleging it contained classified information. Those concerns about classified info are once again in the spotlight in the wake of the FBI raid of Bolton’s Maryland home.
The media has largely reported that the search was part of a national security investigation in search of classified records, which many extrapolated were tied to the book. But Article III Project founder and Trump insider Mike Davis suggested to Real Clear Politics that there is more to it. “Democrats, RINOS, and reporters who think this raid on John Bolton is about his book will be very embarrassed when the search warrant becomes public,” he said.
The investigation into Bolton was reportedly frozen under the Biden administration and reopened under FBI Director Kash Patel, who posted on X shortly after the raid began that “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on a mission.” An FBI official, meanwhile, said in a statement that the bureau was “conducting court authorized activity in the area” and “there is no threat to public safety.”
When Trump was asked about the raid on Friday, he said he had no prior knowledge. “No, I don’t know about it. I saw it on television this morning,” the president told reporters. “I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out. I know nothing about it.”
The Reaction
Bolton has not been charged or arrested, but the establishment media is portraying the raid as another sign of authoritarian retribution on the president’s enemies. Some suggested it is the “latest indication that the Trump administration is targeting the president’s political enemies,” while others said “it’s just more revenge and more retribution on his political enemies.”
Perhaps the most hypocritical reaction came from former FBI Deputy Director Andy McCabe, who was fired in 2018 for unauthorized leaks and “lack of candor” (i.e. lying to investigators), a decision ultimately overturned by a court shortly after President Joe Biden took office.
McCabe was on CNN bashing Patel’s X post as the raid was ongoing. “I mean, it’s yet another example of… in my opinion, Kash Patel failing to live up to the example of his predecessors,” he claimed. “This is not the kind of thing that any FBI director has ever done. FBI directors don’t gratuitously point towards… search warrants and the people who are the targets of those warrants in any sort of way that could possibly be interpreted as grandstanding.”
“I think the implication here is pretty clear. He wanted to draw attention to this law enforcement – this sensitive law enforcement activity at John Bolton’s house – which anytime you draw press attention to a search warrant execution, you are elevating the risk that is posed to both the agents and the occupants at that place,” he continued. “So, it’s a pretty irresponsible thing to do.”
Megyn called BS on McCabe’s claims. “The FBI never tips anyone off? Tell it to journalist James O’Keefe, who had his home raided by the FBI and, conveniently, The New York Times magically knew all about it in real time,” she said.
In November 2021, O’Keefe’s New York home was raided as part of a probe into the alleged theft of a diary belonging to First Daughter Ashley Biden. “It is illegal to steal a diary, but it is not illegal for a press person, without having been in on the theft, to then possibly publish it, which is what James was considering. And he was open about that,” Megyn said. “That does not lead to FBI raids in normal America, only in Joe Biden’s America.”
And contrary to McCabe’s claims, minute details of such raids make their way to the media, as O’Keefe told Megyn back in April 2022 in episode 299. “I was in handcuffs and I was in my apartment. The FBI had just executed a search warrant against an American journalist, unlawfully, and broke the law,” he recalled. “And then minutes later, I get a text message from Mike Schmidt, national security reporter at The New York Times, who somehow knows all these details. And I don’t think the neighbors tipped him off. This is something that he knew. He had leaks from the Department of Justice.”
The Hypocrisy
Somehow, as Megyn quipped, The New York Times knowing all about a raid in real time is not “dangerous” but a generic post from the FBI director is. Jashinsky was similarly perplexed.
“Why the hell is CNN asking Andy McCabe his opinion on any of this,” she asked. “If you are going to do it, you should do it very critically and be like, ‘Well, sir, didn’t you get us into this situation in the first place?’ Or ‘isn’t what you’re saying complete and total bullsh-t because you are guilty of everything that is coming out of your mouth?’ But no. CNN, as they’re trying to repair their own reputation, is just seriously talking to Andy McCabe like he can be a credible person to have on as an expert to talk. That’s insane.”
Megyn said the handwringing from the media is particularly rich when you consider how they have tried to downplay the declassifications from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that show how the FBI and intel agencies were leaking to the Times, Washington Post, and others at the height of the Russiagate hoax.
“They ran to the [media]… that was all part of their plan, you see. But in fairness, Trump wasn’t yet indicted. He actually had done nothing wrong,” Megyn noted. “Is it better to involve the press when… you have a search warrant? Or is it better to involve the press when the person has done nothing wrong and you are just ginning up a fake controversy about them?”
In Jashinsky’s view, it is hypocrisy at its finest. “Here they are acting like they have the upper hand, like they are pointing out some great hypocrisy on the Trump administration and MAGAs behalf, when… [they] have spent the last two months downplaying stories, disclosures that show exactly what [they] are condemning right now,” she said. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Jashinsky by tuning in to episode 1,134 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.