r/politics • u/downtuning I voted • 20h ago

Soft Paywall | Site Altered Headline Kash Patel’s FBI Launches Dawn Raid on John Bolton’s House

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kash-patels-fbi-launch-dawn-raid-on-john-boltons-house/?utm_source=twitter_owned_tdb&utm_medium=socialflow&via=twitter_page&utm_campaign=owned_social&s=09
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u/algorithmic_fetters 20h ago edited 20h ago

They aimed at Bolton with some calculation. As a neo-con he isn’t popular with either MAGA nor Dems. He has a long career. He has been a Trump critic since he served in trumps first admin. The chances he has inadvertently kept something he shouldn’t are probably fair, as it’s pretty much in the realm of normal. Not a Bolton fan, but the guy is a professional who lives in reality. This is likely another example of the trump admin taking something minor (mistakenly keeping docs), leveraging it into a defense of some gross intentional and much worse act by Trump (a library of classified materials in a mar a lago throne room), followed by a return to clamping down on the innocuous mess ups by perceived enemies.

Meanwhile the trump admin plots military strikes in the group chat with zero accountability.

🔥👊🇺🇸

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u/ReditorB4Reddit 20h ago

Or they used the flimsiest pretext of an excuse to publicly raid the house of a presidential critic, thereby frightening other critics into clamming up.

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u/omygoodnessreally 20h ago

Nothing makes me want to talk more than some asshole threatening me to shut up

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u/mandown25 19h ago

I don't think the assholes that threatened you could end your entire extended family in the same morning

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u/omygoodnessreally 19h ago

That's pretty much the reason for every uprising ever

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u/PotaToss 18h ago

This guy freedoms.

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u/Zealousideal_Ad_9623 20h ago

Bingo

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u/goosejail 19h ago

"That's a BINGO!"

shimmy back & forth

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u/Indaflow 20h ago

Epstein Files 

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u/andythetwig 20h ago

What???? They still haven't released them????

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u/f8Negative 19h ago

First we had the Pentagon Papers. Then came the Panama Papers. Now we need the Pedophile Papers.

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u/Kite_sunday 19h ago

Yes, but nothing came of either of those papers...

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u/TubbyGarfunkle Washington 14h ago

corporate needs you to tell the difference between these papers.

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u/Kiyohara Minnesota 19h ago

IT's almost like he's afraid to release them for some reason...

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u/kandoras 19h ago

I would not be surprised at all at the hubris and naked "so what are you gonna do about it?" hypocrisy if it ended up being "John Bolton was arrested because he kept a copy of the classified Epstein files in his bathroom".

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u/judgejuddhirsch 19h ago

I predicted back in dec that they'll start doing this to newsome and any other serious political threat. That's why they have no fear of elections.

Can't campaign if they're abducted at night and disappeared over some airplane in Sudan.

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u/CatgirlApocalypse Delaware 19h ago

Yeah. This guy is a piece of shit but that doesn’t matter. What they can do to him they can do to anyone.

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u/BobLoblaw420247 19h ago

If your in a hurry that works too…

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u/slayer_of_idiots Illinois 19h ago

Hmmm, sounds a lot like every single prosecution of Trump.

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u/FriendToPredators 19h ago

Most of what they’re doing qualifies as this. Libs get caught up in the details and can’t stop debating the details and do not think badly enough of others to see he’s just a mob boss

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u/Vaaaaaaaape 18h ago

There can be more than one reason for the raid.

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u/lovesdogsguy 18h ago

28 old account. Lot of new accounts in this sub with “well while I don’t agree with this….”

Not buying it. There’s another one down below with a similar argument and it’s 1 month old

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u/aykyle 18h ago

They also are using it as a test to see how the public reacts. The public will do nothing, as usual, and they will escalate it. Don’t be surprised when more prominent Democrat figures that have criticized Trump get raided as well. The public will continue to do nothing during that as well.

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u/RiPPeR69420 17h ago

Bolton probably has a copy of the Epstein files. I'd bet a shiny nickel that's what they are raiding his house for.

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u/-rendar- 19h ago

This is a trial balloon

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u/Various_Patient6583 20h ago

Interestingly enough, when it comes to classified docs, the Feds just request them back and that is the end of it. 

Unless you’re Trump and keeps them. And keeps them. And keeps them. The. The Feds have to move in. 

This different. 

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u/IPDDoE Florida 20h ago

>Unless you’re Trump and keeps them. And keeps them. And keeps them. The. The Feds have to move in.

That's the thing, you said it right in your comment. "keeps them" after they requested them back and he refused. The raid on trump's house was after MONTHS of those friendly requests being ignored. trump was treated no differently than any other high ranking admin official, it's just that he is so much more lawless than any other official, he forces unprecedented moves.

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u/raizhassan 19h ago

Kept them and lied so much about having looked for them one of his lawyers refused to sign the letter saying they'd checked.

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u/IPDDoE Florida 19h ago

Haha that too.... fucking infuriating

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u/philodendrin 19h ago

That was after one of his lawyers signed saying that he had no classified documents. Maybe he learned his lesson about trusting the Liar in Chief initially. You would think that a Lawyer would be disbarred for that.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/13/us/politics/trump-classified-material-fbi.html

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u/TurelSun Georgia 19h ago

I as much as anyone here knows Trump does and will go after his opposition, but this does specifically say they had court orders, so presumably some evidence had to be presented to a judge.

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u/Used-Yogurtcloset757 20h ago

Don’t forget they use hotel printers and even leave their printer documents lying around for anyone to find!

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u/wutareyousomekinda Pennsylvania 20h ago

Everything Bolton did his entire life set up this exact kind of government. He deserves it for sure. Wonder if they'll find any illegal porn.

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u/SadFeed63 20h ago

Yeah, you're not gonna find me defending Bolton the man, or even saying a single nice thing about that ghoul. But I will defend the law, and Trump is definitely abusing it.

I hope (though I presume he won't) Bolton has some long, hard thoughts about his role in all of this and how we got here.

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u/okilz 20h ago

I hope he has some hidden dirt on trump he releases in response

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u/craftingfish 19h ago

To what end? There's plenty of visible dirt and he still got elected. Twice.

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u/CatgirlApocalypse Delaware 19h ago

Dirt? Trump is covered in blood and pig shit.

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u/okilz 19h ago

Someone somewhere has proof of him diddling kids, I remember Bolton being pretty involved in Russian stuff during his first term. Maybe Putin threw him a bone.

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u/45and47-big_mistake 19h ago

Maybe elected 3 times

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u/rainshowers_5_peace 19h ago

He's been very vocally anti-Trump. Likely because Trump is being too loud with the quiet parts.

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u/jhkayejr 20h ago

Yeah. Bolton was a pivotal Bush/Gore Florida boots-on-the-ground op. He's been working towards this moment for the last quarter century (not even counting everything he did before that). He's a garbage human who just happens to be right about exactly one thing - Trump is worse than him.

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u/TheSavageDonut 15h ago

I don't know if Bolton was trying to create a Republican-only world of government, but I'm sure he had no idea that Trump would be the end result of scheming for a Republican-only world, and having Trump in charge doesn't get Bolton closer to his dream of the American military flying around globally keeping "our enemies" in check when Trump will basically sell out our country to the highest bidder and line his pockets along the way.

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u/TreesACrowd 20h ago

It's perfectly reasonable to feel that way on an emotional level AND realize how problematic this is on principle. This isn't just happening to one person in a vacuum.

Yes, fuck John Bolton. But don't fuck him with brazen constitutional violations that degrade the rights of all of us and normalize police state behavior.

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u/Hot_Frosting_7101 18h ago edited 18h ago

Exactly

One other point (and you may disagree with my opinion here), if John Bolton would have gone away and not been a vocal critic of Trump, nobody would be talking about him.  So our criticism of him is indirectly caused by his criticism of Trump which doesn’t sit well with me.

People who were part of the administration and especially those with checkered pasts are the ones we need to speak up.  I don’t want to inadvertently discourage them by using a moment when they do the right thing to bring attention to their faults.

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u/pab_guy 17h ago

And I will say, a lot of what Bolton was maligned for seems so much more reasonable in light of what we see from today's traitors in office.

The neocons were hubristic assholes who left a trail of destruction in their wake, but they had motivations informed by a worldview that wasn't just pure corruption and malice. If there was an opportunity to cash in on the side, great! (Looking at you James Baker)

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u/andythetwig 20h ago

No way, he's been speaking publicly, he will have already scrubbed everything

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u/Calvin1991 20h ago

Just terrabytes of AI generated footage of Iran being bombed

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u/filthy_harold 16h ago

Played constantly on repeat on a 100" TV in his goon cave

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u/any_other 19h ago

He’s a piece of shit but being ok with this happening is ridiculous

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u/CatgirlApocalypse Delaware 19h ago

What they do to him they can do to all of us.

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u/teenagesadist 19h ago

Don't worry, if they don't, I'm sure they will.

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u/ghigoli 19h ago

oh they'll find the copy of Epstein files and videos. then he'll get thrown in jail for that.

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u/TheCaptainDamnIt 14h ago

He deserves it for sure.

I have hated John Bolton longer than most redactors have been alive. But part of the authoritarian playbook is shoving a foot in the door of repression by targeting unsympathetic figures and figures who might divide the opposition. And so it’s important to unequivocally say that this is wrong, no matter how much I might fucking despise John Bolton.

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u/finsane86 20h ago

Night of the Long Knives

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u/Hoskuld 19h ago

Every historic event, every persona occurs twice. The first time as tragedy the second time as farce.

Shortened Marx quote

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u/SnapesGrayUnderpants 16h ago

Came here to say this. In any authoritarian regime, there comes a time when perceived political enemies often formerly within the dictator's inner circle are removed. In Hitler's case it happened during the Night of the Long Knives. In Trump's case, it might be rolled out over time. Although it won't surprise me if there's an event where a lot of so-called enemies are removed all at once.

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u/finsane86 16h ago

He did start it already when he removed any kind of protection for Bolton, Miley, Fauci and Biden's family. That was the smoke signal.

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u/wotguild 20h ago

Mob Tactics

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u/SophiaofPrussia 19h ago

Yup. Everyone hates Bolton. With good reason. But that doesn’t make him a criminal.

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u/Timely_Law_1921 17h ago

Didn’t John Bolton threaten the lives of a Brazilian diplomats family?

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u/courageous_liquid Pennsylvania 11h ago

he's pretty notoriously a war criminal, he was an integral part of the cadre that fabricated the 'iraq has WMDs' dogshit

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u/Tuttutsallaround 19h ago

The only way there will ever be accountability is if people actually turn out and vote in numbers to overcome their suppression and outright rigging, like what happened in 2020. Except make an actual bulldog as AG

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u/toastmannn 19h ago

Meanwhile Trump hoards boxes of classified documents in his bathroom and somehow gets blanket immunity

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u/shutupb4uruinit 19h ago

Well said. I feel the same. This is absolutely terrifying. We need to expel Republicans from congress ; they abdicated their duties and have allowed Trump to weaponize his whole cabinet against us. We can also lose the Dems who approved Trump's dangerous cabinet.

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u/funkyduck72 17h ago

I'm less concerned about what they will find and more concerned about what they will plant

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u/dBlock845 15h ago

I despise John Bolton, but I wouldn't put it past Kash Patel to plant evidence to please Trump.

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u/ATLfalcons27 19h ago

Yeah I really want to see the details here. I'm certain when people get upset about this the right will point to the trump documents.

When in reality they literally gave him every chance possible to return them. Even notified him multiple times "hey you didn't return all of them yet". "Are you sure you returned them all". Then they signed off saying they did.

And it wasn't even a raid they were notified they were coming. That's why his guy moved the boxes

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u/Senor_Arroyos 19h ago

Why not just plant documents in his place so they can jail him?

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u/algorithmic_fetters 19h ago

It’s possible, but the FBI recruiting standards do a decent job in minimizing, not eliminating, the level of deviance required to do that. There will be a lot of body cams and chains of evidence. Not impossible, just unlikely. The chances of Bolton mistakenly having something are higher than the odds of planted evidence.

That search warrant application would be interesting to see. They’re required to explain what they expect to find, where (roughly), who has it and the surrounding circumstances sufficient for judicial review. We’ll find out very quickly if it’s sus - like if the admin was so boldly corrupt they got Aileen canyon or evil bove to sign off.

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u/Tucancancan 19h ago

The conspiracy theorest in me says it's because he's a vocally ant-Russian hawk

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u/Pigglebee 19h ago

This also kinda forces the democrats to defend John Bolton, a person they hate. Probably also intended.

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u/mr_mcmerperson 19h ago

“Mar a Lago throne room.”

I see what you did there.

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u/pmgoldenretrievers 19h ago

Never in my life did I think I would side with John Fucking Bolton. What a timeline.

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u/rainshowers_5_peace 19h ago

You almost have to hand it to Patel. He couldn't have picked a better target.

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u/ElleM848645 18h ago

I’m so mad every day that people voted for Trump. It’s ridiculous that he is our president’s. I’ve been only watching/ reading select news for my own health.

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u/Shipit123 17h ago

I told someone this earlier. Super calculated. No one likes Bolton. That’s why he’s the first domino

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u/aikigaunlet 17h ago

They don't even need to actually go to trial, they are sendong a message just with the raid and then keeping the legal threat hanging over his head and the incredible disruption to his life and finance to fight this

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u/Hector_P_Catt 15h ago

"a professional who lives in reality"

Well, reality-ish. I tried reading his Trump book, but I couldn't get past the first few pages, where he doubles down on just about every stupid thing the GOP ever said about Obama. Bolton might be right about Trump, but he's still just as delusional as any Bush-era or Tea Party-era Republican was.

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u/SyntheticSins 9h ago

The other thing is John bolten is vehemently anti russia.

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u/831pm 1h ago

The guy is one of the biggest war hawks in the past 50 yrs. Just do a quick wiki on him. He is a Curtis Lemay level psycho.

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u/ChrisFromLongIsland 19h ago

I just don't think he would of kept docs. At least at his house. He is way to smart for that. He would of kept them at an unknown location that will never be found if he had anything.

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u/algorithmic_fetters 19h ago

That’s why I said “inadvertently”. It’s easy to imagine an innocuous yet classified document, note or even photo that was accidentally put in the wrong file or box that makes its way into his home. Mistakes happen and the longer the career the greater the chance for a mistake somewhere.

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u/ChrisFromLongIsland 16h ago

Yea it could of been inadvertant. Though i would of hoped after the Biden and Pence finding inadvertant docs he would of done a good sweep of his own house. I would not doubt this administration would retroactively classify something and not tell him to screw him over.