WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump called his former national security adviser, John Bolton, a “lowlife” but said he didn’t know much about the FBI search of his home in suburban Maryland.

Bolton, who also served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been sharply critical of Trump since serving for him in his first term. Trump has previously canceled Bolton’s security clearance and security detail, despite an Iranian assassination plot.

"I'm not a fan of John Bolton," Trump told reporters Aug. 22 at The People’s House museum near the White House. "He's a real sort of a lowlife."

Trump said he saw coverage of the FBI search on television but didn’t know much about it. The Justice Department will probably brief him, he said.

After Trump’s meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 15, Bolton had told CNN that Putin "clearly won" the summit in Alaska. Bolton previously said Trump wasn’t competent to serve as president.

The Justice Department started a criminal investigation and filed a federal lawsuit during Trump's first term to block publication of Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.”

The lawsuit filed in June 2020 alleged that Ellen Knight, the senior director for records access at the National Security Council, found “significant amounts of classified information,” including some classified as “TOP SECRET,” in the $2 million book while reviewing it for publication.

But Bolton’s attorney, Chuck Cooper, called the lawsuit “a transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor” Bolton.

A judge rejected the lawsuit’s request to block the book and the Justice Department dropped both the lawsuit and the criminal inquiry during the Biden administration in 2021.

Trump on Aug. 22 said he hired Bolton because his aggressive reputation scared foreign governments. But Trump now says Bolton is "very bad at what he does" and "unpatriotic."

"He’s a very quiet person, except on television, if he can say something bad about Trump," Trump said. "He's not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic guy. We’re going to find out.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump calls former aide John Bolton a 'lowlife,' but doesn't know about FBI search

Reporting by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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