Bethesda (United States) (AFP) - FBI agents raided the home and office on Friday of former national security advisor John Bolton, one of US President Donald Trump’s fiercest critics, in an investigation officials said was linked to classified documents.

Trump, asked about the FBI searches, said he was “not a fan” of his former aide but did not know about the law enforcement operation ahead of time.

The FBI declined to comment on the coordinated raids of Bolton’s home in the Washington suburb of Bethesda and his downtown office in the nation’s capital, but FBI director Kash Patel posted “NO ONE is above the law” on X as they were taking place.

“We’re in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation into John Bolton,” Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with NBC News.

“Classified documents are certainly part of it,” Vance said, and there was also “broad concern” about Bolton. He did not elaborate.

Vance denied Bolton was being targeted because of his criticism of the president.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Our focus here is on, did he break the law? Did he commit crimes against the American people? If so, then he deserves to be prosecuted.”

Democratic lawmaker Jamie Raskin, whose Maryland congressional district includes Bolton’s neighborhood, called the raid “disturbing.”

“This looks like it’s very much in line with the other acts of political retribution and vengeance exacted against Bolton,” Raskin told CNN.

- Trump calls Bolton ‘sleazebag’ -

Trump, in comments to reporters in the Oval Office, noted that his own Mar-a-Lago home was raided by the FBI after he left the White House as part of a probe into the mishandling of classified documents.

“They went through everything they could, including my young son’s room and my wife’s area,” the president said.

As for Bolton, he called him a “sleazebag” suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.”

The now 76-year-old Bolton served as Trump’s national security advisor in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, “The Room Where it Happened.”

Legal efforts to block its release for allegedly containing classified information were dropped when Joe Biden replaced Trump in the White House in 2021.

Bolton has since become a highly visible and pugnacious critic of Trump, frequently appearing on television news shows and in print to condemn the man he has called “unfit to be president.”

A longtime critic of the Iranian regime, Bolton was a national security hawk and has received death threats from Tehran.

- ‘Retribution presidency’ -

The raid by the FBI came seven months after Trump stripped Bolton – and multiple other foes – of federal protective details.

Asked recently in an interview with ABC whether he was worried about Trump “coming after” him, Bolton said: “He’s already come after me and several others in withdrawing the protection that we had.”

“I think it is a retribution presidency,” Bolton said.

Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against his perceived enemies and political opponents.

He has stripped former officials of their security clearances, targeted law firms involved in past cases against him and pulled federal funding from universities.

The FBI opened criminal investigations in July into two other prominent Trump critics, former FBI director James Comey and ex-CIA chief John Brennan.

Trump was the target of several investigations after leaving the White House and the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home in 2022 as part of the probe into mishandling of classified documents.

Trump was also charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Neither case came to trial, and Smith – in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president – dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.