Daly: Retribution Against John Bolton... to Own the Libs?

A true testament to the perversity of partisan politics.

Last Friday morning, the FBI searched the home of former Trump National Security Advisor (turned outspoken Trump critic), John Bolton. The operation was reportedly part of a “national security probe” tied to allegations that Bolton had improperly kept classified information, some of which may have been used in the writing of his 2020 memoir. The matter had previously been investigated, and was later dropped.

Within minutes of the beginning of the search, FBI Director Kash Patel tweeted “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.”

Some may remember that Patel, who personally ordered the FBI probe, included Bolton’s name on an “enemies list” he published just a few years ago.

This wasn’t the first drama between Bolton and the White House since Trump’s return to office. One of the president’s first official acts after being sworn in was to remove Bolton’s Secret Service detail (which was in place because of a bounty the Iranian government had placed on Bolton’s head). The move was widely considered an act of political retribution — an especially petty one.

Many, including some on the political right, are saying the same about the Bolton probe.

I largely agree with the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board’s take on the matter:

“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… This is the kind of gratuitous viciousness that has increasingly defined Mr. Trump’s return to office.”

Even if you’re perfectly fine with what Trump has been doing (I’ll address that point in a minute), it’s difficult to argue that the Journal is wrong. Trump’s return to power has included frivolous lawsuits against polling and media companies that produced content he didn’t like, the firing of federal agents and other public officials assigned to investigate him, the firing of prosecutors who put away January 6 criminals, the removal of security clearances and protection from those who’ve criticized him, and Republican-led congressional investigations into individuals who’ve made his life difficult. The search of Bolton’s home, and the related legal challenges he’ll surely face, is just the latest aggression.

Now, to be clear, I’m open to the idea that Bolton did something improper in regard to classified information. Though past criminal and civil inquiries into the matter were dismissed, it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that something new has been discovered. (I suppose we’ll find that out, along with whether the development is meaningful). And if it turns out that Bolton did illegally keep or otherwise mishandle classified material, I have no problem with him facing an appropriate punishment for that.

As I’ve made clear in my past writing, I think the mishandling of classified material should be taken very seriously.

One person who doesn’t believe that, unfortunately, is Donald Trump himself. When leaving office in early 2021, he illegally took several boxes of classified material to Mar-a-Lago, his country club and home in Florida. He spent the next year and a half stonewalling and outright blocking multiple efforts by the National Archives (and later the DOJ) to retrieve the material without incident.

The documents included defense and weapons capabilities of the United States and other countries, details on our nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of our country and other countries to a military attack, and retaliation plans in the event of a foreign attack.

Then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland had a decision to make, and there were really only two options:

1. Let Trump keep the highly-sensitive material (which he was showing off to random country-club guests and storing in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom).

2. Take them back.

Garland chose the latter, issuing an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August of 2022. Agents recovered the material, and Trump was federally charged.

Many on the right reflexively cried foul, but as more information was released to the public, and the strength of the evidence was better understood, the best argument Trump’s defenders were left with (for why he shouldn’t be prosecuted) was how it looked from a purely political perspective: Trump had been a U.S. president, he was vying to be one again, and the opposition party was in charge of the DOJ.

Therefore, according to them, the prosecution was inherently political. The classified-documents case and other federal indictments were successfully painted with a broad “lawfare” brush, attributed directly to President Biden (and/or the Deep State), and deemed no more legitimate than the transparently political cases brought by local Democratic prosecutors in New York. This narrative became Republican orthodoxy, and arguably helped Trump re-win his party’s presidential primary.

And last Friday, it was weirdly evoked by some on the right as news broke of the FBI operation at John Bolton’s home:

Note to RedState’s “Bonchie”: John Bolton is not a Democrat. Democrats have had it out for him for decades. Also: Bolton had nothing to do with any of the criminal cases against Donald Trump.

Yet, Bonchie was far from the only Trump defender making the strange argument. Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld took a ride with it as well.

“Some say it’s retribution,” Gutfeld remarked. “I say who cares. Don’t lecture me on timing of lawfare. Don’t lecture me on politically motivated investigations. You guys invented this stuff. You loved doing it to Trump… The Dems never expect it to happen to them. They’re like home invaders who didn’t expect a well-armed occupant when they showed up. And Trump is well-armed.”

I’ve long considered Gutfeld the King of Whataboutism. Most of his political arguments over the last ten years have amounted to pointing a finger at Democrats and saying “they did it first.” But this one really takes the cake.

Again, Bolton is not a Democrat. He doesn’t support, vote for, or endorse Democrats. The guy’s as close to a “lone wolf” as they come in today’s politics. Gutfeld knows this as well as anyone, being that Bolton was a frequent (and revered) guest on his old show, Red Eye (which would seem to make Gutfeld’s indifference on this matter even colder).

Condoning the use of government force to inflict retribution on a political rival is bad enough. Justifying it by pointing to the alleged actions of someone or something that has nothing to do with the rival is so off-the-wall bonkers that it could only make sense to cable-news obsessives.

I mean, it would be like me defending egregious treatment of Bernie Goldberg because of something Joy Behar did. (Take that, Joy, and maybe next time you’ll think twice!)

I’m not sure how much of today’s political derangement is attributable to audience capture and partisan pandering, and which of it is the result of some kind of mental condition. But the continued erosion of guardrails, principles, and good old-fashioned shame isn’t doing anyone any favors.

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