At the time of its release, The Room Where It Happened was one of the most high-profile and damaging insider accounts of the Trump presidency.
The FBI was searching the Maryland home and Washington office of former national security adviser John Bolton on Friday morning, part of a renewed investigation into the alleged mishandling of classified information related to his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, a source told CNN and the Associated Press.
Bolton, a hawkish figure who frequently clashed with then-President Donald Trump and later became one of his fiercest critics, was not detained or charged. The dual search warrants, however, signaled a sharp escalation in a case once thought closed.
At the time of its release, The Room Where It Happened was one of the most high-profile and damaging insider accounts of the Trump presidency. It sold more than 780,000 copies in its first week. Trump publicly threatened Bolton with jail time, and his Justice Department sued to block the book’s release and seize the author’s profits.
The lawsuit failed, but not before a federal judge ruled that Bolton „likely published classified materials“ and had „exposed his country to harm.“ The legal battle ended in 2021 under President Joe Biden, when the lawsuit was dropped and a grand jury inquiry was abandoned.
