John Bolton claims Trump tried to ‘sneak’ classified documents out of White House

John Bolton, who was Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor from 2018-2019, has hit out at his former boss by accusing him of not behaving like a “normal” President before condemning him for allegedly removing classified documents from the White House.

Bolton addressed reporters while attending an event at the Willard Hotel in Washington. “Look … normal administrations, of which that was not one … make provisions for them to be able to access documents that they used or came across,” Bolton said in response to a question from The Independent. “There are any number of ways to do it, that would allow for classified documents to be accessed by a former president under conditions of security.”

Bolton noted that that a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) should have been in place at Mar-a-Lago during Trump’s time as President for the viewing of classified documents. Bolton acknowledged he had this setup in his house. These secure rooms ensure that documents are just as safe as they would be in any federal building.

Bolton went on to say that this is not what happened in this instance. “He didn’t need to sneak it out of the White House,” Bolton said. “From all we can tell, he never made any effort to ask. And I think that’s part of the problem.”

Bolton declined to comment on the nature of the documents, specifically whether they contained any nuclear codes. 

“We live in very unusual times, and I’m worried that the [DoJ] is under such pressure now, pressure from the president’s party to prosecute, pressure from Trump supporters not to prosecute, it’s left the department in a very, very difficult position,” he said. “I think all of us who believe in the rule of law and don’t want to see the procedures violated…have to think of ways to help the department in the public, political part of this issue, explain better what they’re doing. There’s a lot of creativity, but we need to find better ways to do it. Because the department is completely paralyzed in the political arena now.”