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FBI Searches Home of Former Trump Adviser; Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) is Interviewed about the FBI Search at Bolton's Home; White House Referring Bolton Search Questions to the FBI; Former Trump Adviser's Home Searched by FBI. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 22, 2025 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. James Olean (ph) from New York is asking, Sanjay, "how often should we be checking our blood pressure? And what do you think -- what is the best method to get the best -- the most accurate reading?"

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you have to do this right. And -- and there's blood pressure cuffs that you can have at home. I mean, these -- these work pretty well.

One thing I'll say about this is that typically doing it at the same time every day so that you can get a good comparison, that is really critical. So, in the morning and in the evening, and probably doing it twice each time that you do it, so you sort of get two readings to make sure you don't have some sort of different number there.

But the way you do it, really important. You want to be sitting down. You want to not have your legs crossed. And you want to have your back supported. So, if you don't -- if you -- if you're using a -- a cuff, for example, over clothing, it's probably going to add blood pressure. Your -- your number will read artificially high. If your back's not supported, it could read five to 10 millimeters higher. If your legs are crossed, it could read higher as well. So, you have to do this.

And then also you want the cuff to be at the level of your heart. So, you want the cuff to sort of be at the level of your heart, and you want your arm supported on a table. You don't want your arm dangling. These are all things that just sort of happen naturally in the doctor's office. But if you're doing this at home, you want to make sure you do it right.

And then just follow that trend over time to see how your blood pressure is doing.

BOLDUAN: Sanjay, thank you so much, as always. Really appreciate it.

GUPTA: You got it.

BOLDUAN: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. BOLDUAN: We're following major breaking news this morning that

continues to unfold. The FBI conducting a court-authorized search at the home of John Bolton as part of a national security investigation. That is according to a source familiar with the matter. A ton of questions around this right now.

Our CNN crew has been on the ground on the scene this morning, observed FBI personnel near Bolton's home. Even seeing personnel go into his home.

John Bolton, as you well know, is President Trump's former national security advisor and a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. In recent years, he has become a prominent critic of the president ever since he left the first Trump administration. As recently as this week, he spoke to us about President Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think it's a reflection of just how confident the Russians feel. They have escaped the sanctions that have been threatened by President Trump. They've heard Secretary of State Rubio say on Sunday we're not going to sanction them because it will cause diplomatic efforts to fail and they are trying to keep the table set so that things work out in their direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That was just a couple days ago.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz, joining us now.

Katelyn, you brought us this breaking news, and you have some new reporting already. What's going on?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kate.

We can confirm, according to a law -- according to a person familiar with this investigation, that the probe, it's related to the possible retention of national security information. So, a little bit more specific on what we know about this investigation, this search that the FBI is conducting of John Bolton's home.

Not only is it about national security, it is about the retention of national security information. Often, Kate, that looks like, are there classified documents being kept outside of where they should be kept? That often is what we see in investigations like this. But we're still waiting to hear more of what this is.

The FBI, they are at work still on that scene in Maryland where John Bolton's home is. They took bags out of their vehicles to bring inside. There were four or six agents. They have those blazers on that say "FBI" in the back. So, this is quite an observable scene right now. Very different than when the retention of national security information was being investigated during a search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property three years ago,

John Bolton, he has not been charged with anything here. He's not been in government for six years. He did write a book and was under investigation when -- soon after he left the Trump administration in 2020. He was being investigated at that time by a federal grand jury in Washington on the possible disclosure of classified information in that book. And he was not charged there.

So, looking at the possibility of a through line, it seems to be more likely given that this is about the retention of national security information. There hasn't been a formal comment yet that we have received from John Bolton, or from his lawyer. He was unaware of the FBI activity this morning. He wasn't home at the time.

And we also are waiting to see if the administration will say anything publicly. So far, some cryptic messages posted on social media by the two top officials at the FBI.

[09:05:06]

Kash Patel, the FBI director, on the platform X, writing, "no one is above the law. FBI agents on mission." That was right after 7:00 a.m. this morning. And then the deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino, posted, "public corruption will not be tolerated." Not mentioning John Bolton by name in either of those -- in either of those things.

This is a situation that would be court authorized. So, the FBI would have gone to a court, with the help of Justice Department prosecutors, asking to have the approval of a search like this take place. They would have had to have probable cause to do this. But that, as we know, is a far, far, long way from potential charges and also potential trial, anything like that.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: A long, long way from that is exactly right.

Katelyn, thank you so much.

She'll be back up with all the information that she continues to gather, because this, as she said, FBI personnel are still processing the house, still on the scene right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Got one interesting tidbit, which is that tweet she just mentioned from FBI Director Kash Patel saying, "no one is above the law. FBI agents on mission." The vice president of the United States, J.D. Vance, just retweeted it.

So, again, this is social media sort of play by play here.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: But you now have the vice president retweeting this, you know, this statement. Again, it's not specific, but it was put out during the time of this FBI search with now the vice president leaning in, which I imagine will only lead to more questions about the timing of this and --

BOLDUAN: Yes. The attorney general also had retweeted with comment -- comments this morning as well.

BERMAN: So, the possible political overtones here.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: I want to bring in CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson.

And, Joey, the new information that Katelyn just reported there is a search connected to the possible retention of national security information. What does that tell you?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, what it tells you is the following. We have laws, as we know, in this country. One of those laws relate to how you deal with classified information. It's not certainly a surprise to any of us about the fact that the government takes this seriously. We've seen an investigation as to former President Biden. We've seen the current president being indicted with respect to classified information.

And so, what it tells us is that apparently there's a look at a person who was an administration official. He left in 2019, in September, six years ago. And there's some concern and focus with respect to whether he may have mishandled this information.

The law says that you cannot knowingly take and then intentionally retain. And so, if they're doing that, the FBI has a place in doing that. And they should do that, because information certainly should be looked at properly.

If they're not doing that, and this is something that we're seeing tweets about, where are we as a society? We're generally at a place where the Department of Justice conducts their investigations. They bring them to the grand jury. If there's something to see, there's an indictment. If there's not, there wouldn't be.

We have here the FBI director tweeting, and we have the vice president retweeting.

One final point. You know, there's a doctrine of law called "of and concerning." You don't have to say someone's name. But if it's so clear that it relates and pertains to them, then, you know, we're going to call, you know, a bird by any other name is still a bird. A duck by any name is a duck. And so, this is just bizarre behavior. And it's very unconventional and very norm breaking and very concerning.

BERMAN: Joey Jackson, CNN legal analyst, don't go far.

We're going to jump in and speak right now with Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois. He's on the -- the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees.

Congressman, I appreciate you being with us. Let me just first get your reaction to this breaking news. The FBI

searching the home of former National Security Adviser John Bolton as apparently a part of an investigation about the possible retention of national security information.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Well, look, we always have to look into any violations of laws pertaining to classified information. Certainly when we saw, you know, mountains of documents piled up in the bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, you know, that was very concerning, to say the least.

However, what I'm concerned about even more is that this is somehow political retribution. That the FBI has become the federal bureau of inquisition and that, you know, basically Donald Trump is weaponizing the DOJ and the FBI against his critics.

Let's be very clear. This is, obviously, a message sent to John Bolton, but it's also a message that's trying to be sent to other potential critics or current critics of Donald Trump, that if you continue to criticize him, that you may be next on his list of targets at the FBI.

BERMAN: We noted that the FBI director, Kash Patel, tweeted, "no one is above the law. FBI agents on mission." And he put that tweet out during the timeframe that the FBI was believed to be on site at John Bolton's home. And now we're just seeing that the vice president of the United States is reposting that tweet.

[09:10:06]

What's your reaction -- I -- specifically to the vice president now weighing in here?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: It looks political to me. I mean, it's -- it's - it -- it looks political. It looks like it's also an attempt to distract from the other big news of the day, which is the first production of the Epstein files that's required by subpoena from the Oversight Committee, on which I sit. And they want to change the conversation repeatedly. This is going to happen every day because they don't want people talking about the Epstein files or about their mismanagement of the economy.

BERMAN: All right, let me -- let me follow up on that. You think -- you were questioning the timing of this and raising a possible connection to the turning over of some documents of Epstein files to your committee today?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes. I think that, look, I think today is the first day that the DOJ has been required to comply with the subpoena. They said that they would start producing documents today. I'm concerned that they're going to slow walk that as well. But there's tremendous clamor for these documents and transparency as to these files. And as you know, both Donald Trump, as well as Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, are trying to prevent that from happening, and they want to change the conversation.

BERMAN: And that's what you think this raid -- not -- the -- the -- the search at Bolton's house is about?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: It could be. I think that there's going to be repeated attempts to distract from, you know, both the economy, as well as the Epstein files.

BERMAN: Let me talk to you more about the file, the Epstein files. You don't have them yet? The committee doesn't have them yet?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Not to my knowledge, no.

BERMAN: Do you have any information about the mechanism by which they will be handed over?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: What we're told is that, first of all, there's only going to be a partial production of these files today. I don't know whether it's going to be electronic or it's going to be in paper files or both. And then secondly, we've now been informed by the majority on the committee, so these are the Republicans on the committee, that they are also going to undertake a review of these files before they're released to the public.

Again, I think that the public is clamoring for the full files. There's more than 100,000 pages of documents, according to a recent court summary. And I think that people want to see it right away. And I'm concerned that they're not going to get to see it right away.

BERMAN: And is this just the first or have you been told there is going to be more disclosures over a period of time?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I've been led to believe that there's going to be a rolling production of these documents over time, but we don't know what that means. And so, today, hopefully we'll get at least an initial production and hopefully it's a fulsome set of documents, but we're not going to know until later today.

BERMAN: All right, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, from Illinois, we do appreciate you jumping on with us. Again, a lot of developments, a lot going on this morning. Thank you for your time.

And again, the breaking news that we were just talking about, the FBI searching the home of John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Trump in the first administration, now a vocal critic of the president. The new information we're getting in about what this might be about.

And then a federal judge -- the new ruling that effectively shuts down what the Trump administration calls Alligator Alcatraz in order to dismantle some of the facilities inside there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:56]

BERMAN: All right, we've got some video in from just moments ago from Washington, D.C. OK, now these are live pictures. This is the office building -- the office building now for former National Security Adviser John Bolton, where he has an office in Washington, D.C. And just a short time ago, our cameras there did see people wearing FBI jackets around this building. Again, the offices of John Bolton in Washington, D.C.

We do know for a fact that FBI agents searching the home of John Bolton outside Washington. That's part of a national security investigation we now know is based on the retention of classified documents, or alleged retention of classified documents.

I want to get right to CNN senior reporter Betsy Klein, who is at the White House this morning.

Have we had any reaction from inside that building behind you yet?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER AND WRITER: Well, John, the White House, for now, referring all questions to the FBI.

And there are a lot of questions, like, what was the White House's involvement? Was the White House involved? Was the president involved? Was he briefed on this raid of John Boltons house?

But I just want to zoom out for just a moment to really -- to give some of the context about the very challenging relationship between President Trump and John Bolton, who was the president's third national security advisor during his first term in office. He served for about 18 months, ending in 2019.

And shortly after that tenure, John Bolton published a scathing book called "The Room Where it Happens." And, subsequently, Bolton has been one of the major critical voices of President Trump's foreign policy on the conservative Republican side of the aisle. Most recently criticizing President Trump's plans heading into that Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said that Putin has already won heading into that summit. And afterward he told our colleague Anderson Cooper that Trump did not lose but Putin clearly won.

[09:20:00]

He also said, quote, "I thought Trump looked very tired up there. Not disappointed, but tired." That is certainly something that President Trump would be paying attention to.

And we had seen, heading into that summit, the president posting on social media about John Bolton, calling him a "fired loser," "really dumb people," and really taking aim at his former national security adviser.

President Trump also, within his first hours after returning to office, had pulled John Bolton's security clearance. And you'll recall that back in 2022, under the Biden administration, the Justice Department filed criminal charges against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard for trying to hire a hitman to kill -- an attempt to assassinate John Bolton. Obviously, that was not successful, but the threat was significant, and it remained. And President Trump pulling that security clearance. But we have learned that the White House travel pool, the small group

of reporters that travels with the president, has been called to gather. They've loaded into vans and the motorcade, meaning that the president is going to make a movement somewhere. We will be with him and find out whether the president plans to comment on any of this, John.

BERMAN: It's -- it's a rare occurrence if the president doesn't make a comment on an event occurring. We will see what he says about this when asked.

Betsy Klein, at the White House this morning, thank you for bringing us up to speed.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And joining us right now for more on this is CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod and CNN's senior political commentator Scott Jennings.

And we may be getting more and more information coming in, guys, so I apologize if we jump in because we keep learning more little tidbits about what is actually happening here, though there are tons of questions that still remain.

Axe, what do you see in this?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, you know, I agree with Kash Patel on the principle that no one should be above the law. I don't know that that's true. And we know that there's at least one person who's not. But in this case, if they have real evidence, and they did get a court order, that's one thing.

But to be suspicious is to be, I think, wise here given the history of the relationship between these two guys, given the fact that one of the first things the president did was target Bolton by removing his security when there clearly has been a threat against him because of his service in government, because of the things that he said about him and because of the things that John Bolton has said recently about the president.

And the fact that the FBI director, you know, goes online and tweets about this, or whatever he -- whatever form of posting he did, the fact that the vice president of the United States jumps on that suggests that this is a politically motivated gesture.

And I thought Joey Jackson was eloquent earlier in talking about the pattern of behavior of this administration. I think this is not just an attempt to -- or could be this -- an attempt to silence John Bolton, but also to send a message to other critics of the administration that the full weight of the administration, including the Justice Department, will fall on you if you displease the president.

BERMAN: Scott. David, hang on one second. Kate promised new reporting. We have it.

We want to get to Katelyn Polantz in Washington with some new information about what this investigation might be about.

Katelyn, what have you learned?

POLANTZ: John and Kate, this comes from an investigation around Bolton that had been closed and is now being resumed into whether he disclosed classified information in his 2020 book about his service in the Trump administration, the first term. That's from a source familiar speaking to our own Kristen Holmes, our White House correspondent Kristen Holmes.

This is something that is connecting the dots here a little bit more. It's a national security investigation. It's about the retention of classified information. And now we know that it is linked to the work that John Bolton did on this book, something that was investigated by a grand jury in Washington five years ago and that resulted in no charges. At that time, the question for that grand jury was -- if John Bolton had disclosed classified information he shouldn't have about Donald Trump and the presidency, Trump was very unhappy at that time because what John Bolton wrote in that book was quite embarrassing for Trump, what he had been saying about other foreign nations, what he had been saying to foreign leaders, how others perceived his handling (INAUDIBLE).

This, though, puts us in the realm of understanding this investigation around John Bolton that clearly exists, that has gone through at least a magistrate judge in federal court for approval for this search and for potentially also the FBI going to his office this morning to potentially do additional searches.

[09:25:10]

All of this puts it in the realm of the possibility this is about, did John Bolton keep records from that writing of that book that now is being investigated by the Trump administration. Something that will also lead to questions of why resume this if this was an investigation that had ended previously.

BERMAN: All right, Katelyn Polantz with this new information, this stems from a now resumed investigation into whether John Bolton disclosed classified information in his 2020 book.

Katelyn, thank you. We'll get back to you.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Back to David Axelrod and Scott Jennings standing by.

And with that news there is -- there -- our team recalled that in 2020 Donald Trump spoke specifically about what he wanted to see happen to John Bolton because of his book.

Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He released massive amounts of classified and confidential, but classified information. That's illegal. And you go to jail for that. And he should have known that. You go to jail for that. I think some of it was classified by him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That in 2020, Scott, I mean, what do you see here?

JENNINGS: Well, I'm reminded of something that I heard someone say after the Mar-a-Lago raid. And the statement was, everybody ought to just calm down, whether you're pro-Trump or anti-Trump, and let the process work its way through. That was said by John Bolton himself after the Mar-a-Lago raid on Trump.

Look, I try not to engage too much in conjecture on these things. All we really know is what Katelyn just told us, that this is related to an investigation regarding information he put in his book. We know that they're searching for things. And that's it. That's -- that's what we know.

And so, Ambassador Bolton's previous views on this were that processes should be allowed to work their way through. I assume this one will work its way through. And if he has not disclosed any classified information, that will be fine and good and -- and we'll talk about that. And if he has, I'm sure we'll talk about it as well. But getting, in my opinion, going down the road of conjecture here when we don't have a ton of facts is that (ph).

BERMAN: Scott, what a little -- kind of a question off to the side here. You served in the George W. Bush administration. There were investigations that often surround administrations in different ways. And you had to -- to testify and were deposed as part of that. This is -- that's far different than what's going on here. I mean Bolton himself is being investigated specifically. But what does it do to your life in terms of upheaval when you're connected to an investigation? How much does it cost in terms of money, resources, and just emotional impact?

JENNINGS: Oh, it can cost quite a lot. I mean to get attorneys and to sit through the process of preparing and going through all your records and answering their questions and then practicing and then going in and doing it. I mean, you rack up hours. And Washington, D.C., attorneys ain't cheap, you know, as they say. So, from that perspective, it is -- it can be very taxing.

It's mentally taxing. There's a lot of anxiety that goes along with it. In my case, I wasn't being investigated for anything criminal and wasn't the target of any criminal investigation. I was merely talking to congressional committees. But it's still -- it's still an emotionally taxing situation, particularly when you know, as I knew in my case, I had done nothing wrong. But I was certainly being dragged in as part of a political investigation. They hated my boss, Karl Rove, and they wanted to get to anybody who was connected to Karl Rove. And so, that -- that's what happened in that case. I emerged on the other side of it perfectly fine. But it can turn your life upside down to some degree.

Now, what Bolton is dealing with here is different. This is FBI coming into your house.

BERMAN: Yes.

JENNINGS: Grand juries. Possible criminal charges. That's what the ambassador -- so, that -- that's a whole nother level of anxiety that -- that I did not have to deal with.

BOLDUAN: One of the -- what Scott was speaking to, David, was, you know, getting ahead -- people getting ahead of their skis or the -- or the risk of it. And Raja Krishnamoorthi was just on with John and very quickly said that, in his view, what he sees is that it's political. And what the congressman said is that it looks like it's also an attempt to distract from the other big news of the day, which is the first day of -- and the first production of the Epstein files that are required by a subpoena to be delivered today to the Oversight Committee, which he sits on.

Do you think there is risk of -- of members of Congress getting in -- getting ahead of their skis on this, or do you think that, as you said, you know, looking at it with clear eyes, it's hard to not ask these questions?

AXELROD: No, I think those questions can be asked. I think Scott's also right. We'll see how this unfolds.

One just -- one point on this. I recall, and I may be wrong about this, there is a -- there is -- you do have to submit manuscripts to the administration when you've worked in the security realm before a book is published.

[09:30:08]

And I think that John Bolton had.