Even John Bolton Doesn’t Deserve This

As a matter of principle, we must fight injustice even when its victims are personally unsympathetic. And never has anyone fit that description more than John Bolton. Bolton has been for decades one of the most repulsive figures in the American foreign policy elite. He is almost entirely unworthy of support.

But count on Donald Trump, Bolton’s former employer and current nemesis, to find a way. After the events of the past week, Bolton can now reasonably be described as unfairly injured by the president’s vindictiveness.

Bolton served as Trump’s third national security adviser, from 2018 to 2019. His parting with the president was acrimonious, with Bolton claiming he quit while Trump insisted Bolton was fired. In 2020, the Trump White House unsuccessfully tried to stop the publication of Bolton’s scathing tell-all memoir. The legal case administration opened against Bolton was dropped when Joe Biden became president.

In a new edition of the memoir published in January, Bolton warned, “Trump really only cares about retribution for himself, and it will consume much of a second term.” He had good reason to fear Trump’s retaliatory impulses. One of Trump’s first acts as president in his second term was to remove Bolton’s Secret Service protection, despite the Justice Department’s assertions that the Iranian government was trying to kill him.

But things escalated much further on Friday, when the FBI raided Bolton’s home and office looking for classified information, in what appears to be a resumption of the 2020 investigation.

The raid elicited a blistering editorial from The Wall Street Journal, which is often friendly to the Trump administration but also often features Bolton as a commentator. The editorial made a compelling case that this prosecution is motivated by presidential vengeance:

President Trump promised voters during his campaign for a second term that he had bigger things on his mind than retribution against opponents. But it is increasingly clear that vengeance is a large part, maybe the largest part, of how he will define success in his second term.

His revenge campaign took an ominous turn Friday as FBI agents raided the home and office of Mr. Trump’s first-term national security adviser John Bolton….

Whether Mr. Trump ordered the FBI probe or not doesn’t matter. [FBI Director Kash Patel] knows what the President thinks about Mr. Bolton, and the President’s minions in Trump II don’t serve as the check on his worst impulses the way grown-ups did in his first term. The presidential id is now unchained.

One reason the Bolton raid clearly seems politically motivated is that Trump has been quick to unleash the power of the presidency against other foes. The Associated Press has provided a partial list:

Trump’s team has opened investigations of Democrat Letitia James, the New York attorney general who sued Trump’s company over alleged fraud for falsifying records, and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who as a congressman led Trump’s first impeachment. The Republican administration has charged Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., over her actions at an immigration protest in Newark, New Jersey, after arresting Mayor Ras Baraka, also a Democrat. Under investigation, too, is former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for New York City mayor.

Those unjustly targeted by Trump are a motley crew, ranging from the noble to the mediocre to the repugnant. Bolton has to be counted as among the very worst, in part because he’s an advocate for an expansive view of presidential power that has given the green light to Trump’s current lawlessness.

Bolton was a prominent member of George W. Bush’s administration, serving as UN ambassador from 2005 to 2006 (Bush had to install him as a recess appointment since he was too unpleasant even for some Senate Republicans to vote for). Along with Dick Cheney, Bolton was an adherent to the idea of a “unitary” executive whose powers shouldn’t be curbed by judges or Congress.