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john bolton
A Timeline of Trump’s Futile Epstein Diversions
For months, US President Trump has tried to divert public attention from the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell files. But he can’t shake the story, and it keeps getting worse.
Aug 27, 2025
Drip, drip, drip…
For months, US President Trump has tried to divert public attention from the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell files. But he can’t shake the story, and it keeps getting worse.
The Reversal
Trump campaigned for the presidency on the promise to release all of the files relating to Epstein’s sex trafficking in minors. To supercharge his MAGA base, he fueled conspiracy theories that the files contained something sinister involving prominent Democrats.
February 2025: Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, told a Fox News interviewer that Epstein’s client list was sitting on her desk, awaiting her review before its release.
May: Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche informed Trump that his name appeared in the Epstein files, the New York Times later reported.
July 7: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel—who had also pushed conspiracy theories about the files during Trump’s campaign—issued a two-page memo stating that there was no Epstein client list and that the Justice Department (DOJ) would not release any additional materials relating to the matter.
July 16: Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Maurene Comey was fired. Comey was a lead prosecutor in the investigation and prosecution of Epstein and his coconspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. She was also the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and chief of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit. The memo gave no reason for Comey’s abrupt termination.
July 17: The Wall Street Journal published Trump’s alleged birthday note to Epstein that included his sketch of a naked woman.
The Blowback
Trump’s MAGA base erupted in anger over his refusal to release the DOJ’s Epstein files. Trying to appease his followers, Trump directed Bondi to ask that the courts release the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts. It was disingenuous because: 1) the courts were not likely to release the material; and 2) even if they did, the transcripts would constitute a small fraction of the Justice Department’s Epstein-Maxwell files.
July 23: A Florida judge denied Bondi’s motion to release the files relating to the Justice Department’s Epstein investigations in 2005 and 2007 that had resulted in a non-prosecution agreement. Trump’s then-Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta had negotiated the agreement with Epstein’s high-powered lawyers while serving as US attorney for the Southern District of Florida during George W. Bush’s presidency.
The Blunder
July 24: Deputy Attorney General (and Trump’s former personal attorney) Todd Blanche flew to Tallahassee and met with Maxwell for two days—an unprecedented visit for a No. 2 official in the Justice Department. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
July 31: Contrary to prison assignment policies for sex offenders, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Prisons transferred Maxwell from a Tallahassee prison to a “Club Fed” camp in Texas.
The Boomerang
August 11: A federal judge in New York denied Bondi’s motion to unseal Maxwell’s grand jury files. The court observed that anyone “who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no ‘there’ there.”
The entire exercise was a farce—another Trump con job:
The one colorable argument under that doctrine for unsealing in this case, in fact, is that doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal. A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at “transparency” but at diversion—aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such.
August 20: A different federal judge in New York blasted Bondi’s motion to unseal the Epstein grand jury transcripts. Describing the “trove” of materials that the Justice Department had assembled but withheld from the public, the court observed:
The Government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials.
Trump’s directive that Bondi seek the release of the grand jury materials was always a ruse. As the court continued:
The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein files. By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a “diversion” from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession.
The court specifically called out Trump’s about-face on releasing the files:
In February 2025, the Government, as noted, was prepared to release the “Epstein Files” to the public. See DOJ Press Release. But then, on July 6, 2025, the Government announced that it would not make the files available to the public.
And the judge concluded: “The information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigation and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice.”
The Newest Scam
Meanwhile, on August 5, several Republicans voted with Democrats on the House Oversight Committee to force chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to subpoena the Justice Department for the Epstein-Maxwell materials. Comer also issued deposition subpoenas to former Attorneys General William Barr, Merrick Garland, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, and Alberto Gonzales; former FBI Director James Comey; former special counsel and FBI Director Robert Mueller III; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and former President Bill Clinton.
That’s superficially impressive, but purely performative. Notably missing from the committee’s witness list are the frontline prosecutors and investigators who actually know something meaningful about the Epstein-Maxwell cases.
One is Maurene Comey.
August 22: The FBI’s surprise search of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s home and office dominated the media. Coincidentally, the Justice Department also released a transcript of Blanche’s July interview with Maxwell during which she asserted that no one connected with Epstein’s alleged crimes had done anything wrong—including her and, of course, Trump, upon whom she lavished praise.
Sharing the news cycle was the Justice Department’s production of documents to the House Oversight Committee. It provided a fraction of the DOJ’s Epstein file, and only 3% was new.
August 25: The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed materials from Epstein’s estate and announced that it will depose Alex Acosta on September 19.
Drip, drip, drip…
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FBI Raids John Bolton's Home in Apparent Act of 'Political Retribution' for Trump Criticism
"The government's being weaponized to silence opposition," said one commentator, "and it's only going to get worse."
Aug 22, 2025
The FBI's raid on former national security adviser John Bolton's home in suburban Maryland on Friday morning followed his mounting criticism of President Donald Trump's handling of negotiations on Russia's war with Ukraine, leading several observers to warn that the raid displayed the president's desire for "retribution" against his perceived political enemies.
CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene reported the FBI's "court-authorized" search of Bolton's home in Bethesda stemmed from the U.S. Department of Justice's "now-resumed investigation into whether he disclosed classified information in his 2020 book," which recounted his time serving as Trump's national security adviser during his first term.
A senior federal law enforcement official also told The New York Times that authorities are investigating allegations that Bolton—a right-wing hawk reviled by human rights defenders for his history of war-mongering both inside and outside of government positions under Republicans administrations, including Trump's—leaked national security information to the media to damage Trump over the past few years, as well as accusations regarding Bolton's book.
Trump and Bolton clashed over foreign policy during the president's first term, with Trump denouncing the former George W. Bush administration official—a key propagandist in the lead-up to the Iraq War and an advocate for violent regime change in numerous countries—as "a hawk" who pushed incessantly for military action against Iran.
In June, Trump bombed three nuclear sites in Iran.
Bolton's push for military action against countries including Venezuela and Iraq, his support for Israel's violent apartheid policies, and his boasting of having "helped plan coups d'etat" in other countries have led anti-war groups and progressive critics to accuse the former national security official of war crimes. Many observers on Friday noted that their alarm over the FBI raid was unrelated to their views on Bolton himself.
"The rule of law is under attack," said constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis of Georgia State University. "We have to zealously defend anyone—even ideologically despised folks—from arbitrary government [attacks]."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) added that while he has "nothing in common politically" with Bolton, the raid appeared to be "just another step in Trump's march toward authoritarianism."
"Last time I heard, in America, people are allowed to criticize the President of the United States without the FBI showing up on their doorstep," said the senator.
The raid was reportedly ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, who accused Bolton of being a member of "the Executive Branch Deep State" in a book he wrote in 2023.
Pate posted a public message on X Friday morning saying his agency was "on [a] mission," just as news broke about the FBI raid.
"NO ONE is above the law," he added.
The post exemplified how Patel has "shattered norms intended to minimize public comment suggesting animus toward subjects under investigation," reported the Times.
In recent days, Bolton has accused Trump of failing to impose the "severe consequences" he threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with if he continued attacking Ukraine, and said Putin "clearly won" the negotiations he had with Trump last week—coming away from them without facing sanctions or requirements for a ceasefire.
Democratic political strategist Mike Nellis said that while he has "no love for John Bolton... the FBI is raiding him for criticizing Trump’s foreign policy."
"The government's being weaponized to silence opposition," said Nellis, "and it's only going to get worse."
In an appearence on CNN, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) suggested the raid was strategically timed to turn the public's attention away from files regarding the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which were sent to the House Oversight Committee on Friday under a subpoena. Trump was a known associate of Epstein. As Bloomberg News reported earlier this month, FBI officials redacted Trump's name and the names of other prominent public figures in files regarding Epstein.
Krishnamoorthi on the FBI raiding Bolton's house: "It looks like it's also an attempt to distract from the other big news of the day, which is the first production of the Epstein files that is required by subpoena from the Oversight Committee and they want to change the conversation."
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 22, 2025 at 9:15 AM
"There's a tremendous clamor for these documents and transparency as to these files," said Krishnamoorthi, "and as you know both Donald Trump and Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, are trying to prevent that from happening, and they want to change the conversation."
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DOJ Charges Iranian Over Alleged Plot to Assassinate John Bolton
Officials have accused Shahram Poursafi of trying to hire a hitman to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian general who the U.S. assassinated with a drone strike in 2020.
Aug 10, 2022
The United States Department of Justice has charged an Iranian citizen who it says is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with attempting to hire an assassin to murder John Bolton, an ex-national security adviser in the Trump administration, multiple outlets reported Wednesday.
According to the Justice Department, Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, offered to pay unnamed individuals $300,000 in November 2021 to "eliminate" Bolton in Washington, D.C. or Maryland.
Federal officials said the assassination of Bolton would have been in retaliation for the U.S. military's January 2020 drone strike killing of Qasem Soleimani--a top commander in the IRGC, which is a branch of Iran's military--in Iraq.
"Poursafi is alleged to have said that after Bolton was killed, there would be another job, for which the hitman would be paid $1 million," The Guardian reported. "The person offered the money became an FBI confidential informant, and continued to exchange texts on an encrypted communications app with Poursafi."
The 45-year-old suspect, who the DOJ believes tried to orchestrate the plot from Tehran, remains at large abroad.
"If found and convicted, he would face up to 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 for the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, and up to 15 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 for providing and attempting to provide material support to a transnational murder plot," the Washington Post reported.
As The Guardian noted:
Bolton was no longer national security adviser when the drone strike against Soleimani was carried out as the Iranian general was visiting Baghdad on January 3, 2020, but he is a longtime advocate of military action against Iran and a staunch opponent of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Tehran. Secret Service cars have been reported to have been parked across the road from Bolton's house in the Washington area at least since early 2022.
In the immediate wake of Soleimani's assassination, Bolton tweeted, "Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran."
Bolton, who admitted on CNN last month that he has "helped plan coups d'etat" in foreign countries, served as a national security adviser to former President Donald Trump for 17 months, resigning in 2019 over reported disagreements about whether to lift some sanctions against Iran as a negotiating tactic.
"Bolton, who did not want the sanctions lifted, was a main architect of the Trump administration's 'maximum pressure' campaign of escalating economic sanctions and threats of retaliation for Iran's alleged support of terrorism," the Post noted. "The idea was to cripple Iran's economy to the point that its leaders felt they must bargain away any nuclear ambitions and missile technology."
News of the FBI's search for Poursafi comes just two days after negotiators in Vienna said they're close to reviving the Iran nuclear accord that the Trump administration, with no small part played by Bolton, unilaterally tanked.
Before his stint in the Trump White House, Bolton, whom critics have called a "bloodthirsty warmonger," was a major cheerleader for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He served in senior arms control roles and eventually became ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush.
Between the Bush and Trump presidencies, Bolton spent time working at right-wing think tanks, a private equity firm, and as a Fox News contributor.
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