Command influence

FBI raid on home of John Bolton

We haven’t had access to the affidavit submitted by the FBI to a Maryland federal magistrate for the search warrant executed on John Bolton’s house this morning, but I can guarantee that it’s going to be interesting reading. Such an affidavit must submit facts to establish probable cause that a crime has been committed, specifying the crime in question, and what evidence of that crime the FBI expects to find at the location where the warrant will be served.

So, what crime does the FBI think John Bolton committed? Speculation today centered on classified documents Bolton may have in his possession. The New York Post this afternoon quoted a “senior U.S. official” saying that Bolton had used his personal email account to send classified information “from his work desk” to his wife and daughter before he was fired by Trump in September of 2019. “He was literally stealing classified information, utilizing his family as a cutout,” according to the unidentified person quoted by the New York Post.

Several reports emphasized Trump’s displeasure with Bolton’s comments after the summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska last week. “Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won,” Bolton told CNN. “What’s that all about?” Trump whined after Bolton’s criticism. “We are winning on EVERYTHING.”

During a visit to a museum dedicated to the White House, Trump told reporters he didn’t know anything about the FBI raid on his former national security adviser’s house and office. “I know nothing about it; I just saw it this morning. They did a raid,” Trump said. “He’s not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic guy, we’re going to find out. He’s a real sort of low life.”

Trump wasn’t the only one commenting on the FBI raid on Bolton’s house. Vice President JD Vance told NBC News anchor Kristen Welker that “there is a broad concern about Ambassador Bolton.” Denying charges that Trump had a vendetta against Bolton, Vance said, “Our law enforcement agencies are going to be driven by law and not by politics.” Then Vance got more specific about the potential prosecution of Bolton. Sounding like he was describing a classic fishing expedition, Vance told Welker the investigation is “in the very early stages. This is all part of gathering evidence, trying to understand something that we’re worried about.”

Trump has been angry with Bolton since he fired him. In 2020, Trump had his Department of Justice file a lawsuit to stop the publication of Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” seeking to confiscate Bolton’s $2 million advance on the book. A judge threw out the lawsuit, but Trump continued a criminal inquiry accusing Bolton of printing classified information in his book. That DOJ investigation was canceled by the Biden administration in June of 2021. The Biden DOJ also dropped the lawsuit seeking to seize the proceeds of Bolton’s book.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced investigations of Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, who led the first impeachment proceedings against Trump for attempting to blackmail Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the successful civil prosecution of Trump for falsifying business records to cover up his pay-off to Stormy Daniels.

I could go into a disquisition about how since the Nixon administration, there has been a bright line between the Department of Justice and the White House to prevent the kind of political influence Nixon, and now Trump, have exercised. But that line is so obviously gone, it hardly bears discussion.

Trump’s retribution campaign has clearly begun. Even though Trump denied knowledge of the search of Bolton’s house and office – I will allow you to judge the truth or falsity of that claim – Vice President Vance gave the game away with his use of the word “we” in describing the investigation of Bolton. “If we think that Ambassador Bolton has committed a crime, of course, eventually prosecutions will come,” Vance told Kristen Welker.

This is what the military refers to as “command influence,” when a unit commander uses his rank and power to prosecute an underling, not for violating a regulation or a law, but because he or she doesn’t like the person charges are brought against. The power of a commander in the military over his or her unit is so absolute, command influence of criminal proceedings is forbidden. Lower ranking officers or non-commissioned officers are likely to think that if they sit on a court martial and fail to convict someone in disfavor with the commander, it will affect their careers.

With Trump, his “command influence” over his MAGA followers is almost as absolute. That’s why Trump is out there calling Bolton a “low life” and why Vance is telling a reporter with a national audience what “we” think about Bolton, and why “we” are investigating him. The signal is clear. Bolton is a bad guy. The FBI wasn’t even finished going through Bolton’s home and office when Trump gave his interview at the museum. Vance didn’t need to know what the FBI had found, or not found, to let Welker know that prosecution of Bolton was the aim of the Trump administration. It doesn’t matter what the FBI finds. We’ll get him.

The influence being exercised by Trump and Vance is vertical – from the White House to the Department of Justice, to the FBI. Get the search warrant, find something to charge Bolton with, and get on with it. The influence of the Trump political machine keeps right on going. If a Trump judge gets the case, he or she will know what to do. If the judge isn’t one Trump appointed, the judge will know that attacks will come; he or she will be doxed, attacked on Truth Social by Trump, slammed on podcasts by Trump’s political puppets.

Not to mention the influence Trump exercises over potential MAGA jurors. If Trump and Vance say Bolton’s a bad guy, that will be enough. It hardly matters what the charges are or what the evidence is. To the MAGA faithful, Bolton is guilty of something, or the president wouldn’t be unhappy with him.

This is law and order the fascist dictatorship way. Trump already has the FBI and ICE agents on the street rounding up and detaining immigrants without charges, legal representation, or trial. John Bolton hasn’t been arrested yet – they’re still looking for “evidence” that he committed a crime. As a public person, anything Patel and Bondi do to Bolton on Trump’s orders will be well covered by the national media, and if he is charged, he’ll be able to afford a high-speed lawyer to defend himself.

But what happens when Trump is finished going after his high-profile enemies? What about everyone else? Is it really time to say, “First they came for John Bolton, and I didn’t not speak out, because I’m not John Bolton.”

Yes, it’s time. We’re next.