Former National Security Adviser John Bolton was stripped of his Secret Service detail on the same day that President Donald Trump stripped him of his security clearance, according to several reports.
CNN reported that Bolton had confirmed that “within hours” of Trump taking office, the president terminated the Secret Service detail that had been assigned to Bolton.
Several sources also informed CBS News that the decision to terminate Bolton’s Secret Service detail had been made “in the past 24 hours.”
In a statement on X, Bolton expressed that he was “disappointed but not surprised that President Trump” had terminated his Secret Service detail. Bolton added that despite his “criticisms” of former President Joe Biden’s national security policies, Biden “made the decision to extend” Bolton’s Secret Service detail protection.
“I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service,” Bolton wrote. “Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021.”
“The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me,” Bolton added. “That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination. The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call.”
As Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong previously reported, Trump also stripped Bolton of his security clearance “over the publishing of his tell-all memoir detailing his time in the Trump administration.”
In an executive order signed by Trump, the order reads that “Bolton published a memoir for monetary gain after he was terminated from his White House position in 2019,” adding that the “book was rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government.”
National security is also damaged by the publication of classified information. Former National Security Advisor John R. Bolton published a memoir for monetary gain after he was terminated from his White House position in 2019. The book was rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government. The memoir’s reckless treatment of sensitive information undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff. Publication also created a grave risk that classified material was publicly exposed.
To remedy these abuses of the public trust, this Order directs the revocation of any active or current security clearances held by: (i) the former intelligence officials who engaged in misleading and inappropriate political coordination with the 2020 Biden presidential campaign; and (ii) John R. Bolton.
Bolton, who previously served as Trump’s third national security adviser during his first administration, has been an outspoken critic of Trump.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press Now in December 2022, Bolton stated that he would “absolutely” run for president in order to stop Trump from winning the presidency.
