GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Early this morning, FBI agents searched the Maryland home of John Bolton, the former national security adviser in President Trump's first administration.

AMNA NAWAZ: Agents were also seen entering a building in downtown Washington, D.C., where Bolton has an office.

President Trump claimed he had no prior knowledge of the raid.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I'm not a fan of John Bolton.

I thought he was a sleazebag, actually.

And he suffers major Trump derangement syndrome, but so do a lot of people, and they're not being affected by anything we do.

I don't know anything about it.

I saw -- just saw that.

I will find out about it.

But if you believe the news, which I do, I guess his house was raided today, but my house was raided also.

GEOFF BENNETT: Since leaving the government in 2019, Bolton has become a sharp critic of President Trump, taking aim at his foreign policy and national security decisions.

AMNA NAWAZ: And within hours of taking office again in January, President Trump stripped Bolton of his classified security clearance.

Joining us now to discuss these fast-moving developments is Josh Gerstein.

He's the senior legal affairs reporter for Politico.

Josh, welcome back to the "News Hour."

Let's just start with what we know about these searches and what agents were looking for.

JOSH GERSTEIN, Politico: Well, Amna, we know there were two searches, as you said, one at Bolton's home in Bethesda and another at an office that he uses in downtown Washington, carried out by the FBI.

The FBI itself has been pretty tight-lipped about what they were doing.

They did confirm that they were at those two locations.

They wouldn't say much more than that.

However, there were reports that they were looking for classified information.

And, of all people, we got confirmation from Vice President J.D.

Vance that this is, in fact, an investigation looking at the possibility that there were classified documents in those two locations.

So that appears to be what they're looking for.

It's not totally clear whether these would be the same classified documents that caused some consternation and litigation when Bolton was publishing a memoir shortly after he left the White House a few years ago or if this relates to some other records perhaps.

AMNA NAWAZ: And if I can ask you briefly too, we know these searches have to be approved by a federal judge.

These can't be unilaterally ordered by the FBI director or even the president.

Do we know if that was the process in this case?

JOSH GERSTEIN: Well, we haven't seen the paperwork because it's sealed, but the FBI has said this was court-authorized.

Since one of the searches took place in Maryland and another in D.C., I think actually two judges or magistrate judges would have had to have been involved here, would have had to sign off on there being at least a probable cause to believe that there is some kind of evidence of a crime at these two locations.

But we should mention that Bolton has not been charged with anything at this point.

AMNA NAWAZ: You heard the way President Trump was talking about John Bolton.

I just want to remind people about this relationship.

Obviously, Bolton served under the first Trump administration.

He was replacing H.R.

McMaster in the role, who was replacing Michael Flynn in that role.

Bolton then had his own chaotic exit in 2019 after some disagreement with President Trump.

How would you describe the relationship since then?

What's happened?

JOSH GERSTEIN: It's been very stormy since he departed the White House.

And I think it's fair to say that Bolton has become a more and more strident critic of Trump as time went on.

There was even talk that Bolton considered running for president a few years ago in an attempt to deny the nomination to President Trump when he was going to run again.

So there's no question that Bolton's feelings about Trump have turned very, very sharply negative probably during the time he was serving in the White House and certainly thereafter.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know that book that we - - that you had mentioned Bolton wrote, he called the president unfit, Trump unfit to be president.

He said his second term would be a retribution presidency.

Is that what this is?

Is this retribution being carried out?

JOSH GERSTEIN: I mean, there's certainly reason to think that could be the case.

Just in the clip we heard there of President Trump, while he said he wasn't aware of this, he mentioned that his House was raided.

So that does make it sound like it's a tit for tat type situation.

Part of what's so unusual about having figures like the vice president commenting on what this investigation is about is that it does tend to reinforce the notion that this could be being undertaken for some kind of political reason, as opposed to a purely law enforcement reason.

But I think we will have to wait and see.

Eventually, we will see these documents that were put in front of those judges or magistrate judges explaining why this search was thought to be necessary and we will have a better idea of whether there were some new facts here that maybe we're not aware of at this point.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, Josh, I know you have had a busy day.

I have to ask you about another story you have been covering, which is the fact that the Department of Justice released transcripts and audio from the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's visit with Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, in her Florida prison last month.

She's since been moved to a Texas facility.

But as part of that audio, I want to play a part in which she talked about her recollections of President Trump.

Take a listen.

GHISLAINE MAXWELL, Convicted Felon: The president was never inappropriate with anybody.

In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.

TODD BLANCHE, U.S. Deputy Attorney General: And did you ever hear Mr. Epstein or anybody say that President Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or with anybody in your world?

GHISLAINE MAXWELL: Absolutely never, in any context.

AMNA NAWAZ: Josh, we should note she also told blanch that she doesn't recall inappropriate behavior by President Clinton either.

She was given limited immunity in these conversations with Blanche.

But does anything in these transcripts, anything we have learned, does it change our understanding of the investigation or this highly unusual meeting between Blanche and Maxwell?

JOSH GERSTEIN: Well, I don't think it changes it a lot.

I think it was a fairly thorough interview.

I think the problem people are going to point out with her story is that, while she is denying that anything untoward went on with President Trump, as you mentioned, she's basically denying that anything untoward went on with anyone that ever interacted with Jeffrey Epstein.

She's saying Epstein himself may have done some things that were improper or even illegal, but she didn't know... AMNA NAWAZ: We appear to have lost our connection with Josh Gerstein.

We thank you for his time.

That was Josh Gerstein of Politico joining us tonight.