George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley estimated on Friday that former national security adviser John Bolton could spend five to twenty years in prison if convicted of possessing classified information.
The FBI raided Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, at 7 a.m. on Friday morning in search of classified materials that were mentioned in his 2020 book, “The Room Where It Happened,” that are believed to still be in his possession. Turley said on “America’s Newsroom” that if Bolton possessed national defense material, he could face a “heightened potential of penalty.”
“It would suggested it could be national defense information,” Turley said. “The reason why that’s important is that creates a heightened potential of penalty. So, you can have penalties that range from 5 to 20 years, 20 years seems to be the consensus for concealing information, obstructing justice. Simply having classified information can weigh in at about 10 years and there’s often multiple counts because each of those documents can be charged separately.”
WATCH:
President Donald Trump’s first administration launched a criminal inquiry into Bolton alleged release of classified material in his 2020 memoir and sought to block its publication. A federal judge ruled in Bolton’s favor and allowed the book to be published.
Under former President Joe Biden’s administration, the DOJ dropped a criminal investigation and civil lawsuit against Bolton over the memoir in June 2021.
The current Trump administration has since reopened the case into Bolton. A source told Daily Caller editorial director Vince Coglianese that the raid is in connection with Bolton allegedly “stealing classified documents and weaponizing them for political purposes.”
Bolton’s book alleged that Trump once “pleaded” with Chinese President Xi Jinping to aid his 2020 re-election campaign. He also alleged that Trump wanted to maintain a freeze on aid to Ukraine until the nation provided information related to Biden and other political opponents.
The raid on Bolton’s house came at the direction of FBI Director Kash Patel, who stated on X that “no one is above the law.”
Bolton has also been highly critical of Trump’s handling of securing peace in the Russia-Ukraine war. Around the same time as the raid, he accused Trump on X of simply trying to hold meetings with Russia President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy because he wants a Nobel Peace Prize.
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