The raid on John Bolton’s home shows how Trump uses intimidation as politics – and why even his fiercest critics should defend Bolton’s right to speak.
By Ian Williams
I moved to New York in 1989, and was shortly afterwards writing about two completely unrelated characters – John Bolton and Donald Trump. That is why the FBI raid on John Bolton’s house and office ties together three decades of separate threads, at once disturbing and reassuring. One hopes they checked his bathrooms in their alleged search for classified documents, since those were the proven archivists’ choice for President Trump’s own stash. And maybe they should check whether Bolton still has a Signal account left over from his National Security days.
Despite their fervent equation of this with the search at Mar-a-Lago, it is significant that Trump had obfuscated for months about documents he was proven to hold, while no one had requested any such material from former National Security Advisor Bolton.
Shamelessly, much of the stenographic media straight-facedly parroted the administration’s risible claim that this search was to further a legitimate investigation. Only the most gullible of MAGA supporters believe this is anything but a gratuitous display of power. The move is meant to intimidate Bolton and send a warning to anyone in the Trump Clown Tent who is having second thoughts and considering blowing the whistle. Is there an Incitatus (Roman Emperor Caligula’s horse that he appointed as Consul) waiting in the stable of Trump nominees? We should be told.
