Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday reportedly defended the FBI’s search of former national security advisor John Bolton’s home and office, rejecting claims that the move represented political retribution against a frequent critic of President Donald J. Trump.
In a contentious exchange with Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, Vance insisted that the administration was committed to ensuring law enforcement decisions were guided by the rule of law, not political vendettas.
“We’re in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation into John Bolton,” Vance said. “Unlike the Biden DOJ and the Biden FBI, our law enforcement agencies are going to be driven by law and not by politics.”
The FBI raid was launched Friday morning, though officials have not confirmed whether Bolton was detained. “I assume that he hasn’t been detained and won’t be detained until there’s an actual prosecution, if that actually happens,” Vance said. Agents were reportedly searching both Bolton’s residence and office as part of the investigation.
When pressed on whether classified documents were at issue, Vance allowed that the matter was under scrutiny but emphasized that investigators were examining wider concerns.
“Classified documents are certainly part of it, but I think that there’s a broad concern about Ambassador Bolton. They’re going to look into it,” he said. “If there’s no crime here, we’re not going to prosecute it. If there is a crime here, of course Ambassador Bolton will get his day in court. That’s how it should be.”
Welker repeatedly questioned whether the investigation represented an effort to silence a political foe of Trump, noting Bolton’s sharp criticisms of the former president and his inclusion on what she called an “enemies list.”
Vance firmly dismissed the suggestion. “If we were trying to do that, we would just throw out prosecutions willy-nilly like the Biden administration DOJ did, prosecutions that later got thrown out in court,” he said. “If we bring a case, and of course we haven’t done that yet, it will be because they determine that he has broken the law.”
The vice president also stressed the importance of restraint in law enforcement actions, particularly in cases involving political adversaries. “We’re going to be careful about that, we’re going be deliberate about that because we don’t think that we should throw people, even if they disagree with us politically — maybe especially if they disagree with us politically — you shouldn’t throw people willy-nilly in prison,” Vance said. “You should let the law drive these determinations and that’s what we’re doing.”
As speculation mounted, Welker pressed again on whether the raid was “retribution.” Vance’s response was pointed: “Well, who has said it looks a lot like retribution, Kristen? A lot of people who tried to throw Donald Trump in prison for completely fake charges that were later thrown out by multiple different courts.”
He urged patience as the investigation proceeds. “If the media and the American people let this case actually unfold, they’re going to find out that what we’re doing is being very deliberate and being very driven by the national interest and by the law here, and that’s as it should be.”
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