Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) claimed on Sunday that anyone critical of President Donald Trump can expect to face the “full weight” of the federal government, citing the FBI’s recent raid on his former national security adviser, John Bolton.
FBI agents conducted an operation at Bolton’s Maryland residence on Friday morning as part of a high-profile national security investigation ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel. The inquiry is believed to be about classified information Bolton was accused of illegally leaking in his 2020 book The Room Where It Happened.
Schiff, a vocal critic of the president, said the FBI’s raid is “clearly retribution,” claiming Trump is acting “very systematic” on this.
“They’re essentially going after any critic, any opposition, in an effort to intimidate them. That’s what this is about. It’s not about Bolton, per se. It’s about anyone else that, like Bolton, might stand up to the president,” Schiff said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Schiff is not the first Democratic figure to claim that Bolton was targeted in the FBI raid.
On Saturday, former CIA Director Leon Panetta, who served under former President Barack Obama, suggested Bolton was targeted over his frequent criticisms of the president’s foreign policy decisions.
“When you stand back and you look at the criticism that John Bolton has made and you look at the president and how sensitive he is about having those criticisms, particularly from somebody who was in his administration, it‘s pretty hard not to come to the conclusion that there‘s some targeting here going on,” Panetta said on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront.
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The investigation into Bolton seemingly reopens an earlier inquiry into the 2020 book that the Biden administration dropped.
Bolton was not detained or charged following the raid.