Like so many police raids, the FBI executed a search warrant at former national security adviser John Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., office in the early morning hours on Friday. The timing is no accident. Northeastern University experts say early morning raids are a deliberate tactic used by the FBI to catch targets off guard, reduce the risk of confrontation and prevent the destruction of potential evidence. In the Bolton case, that could mean potentially classified material.
Northeastern’s Daniel Medwed, a university distinguished professor of law and criminal justice, says the early morning operation gives agents the element of surprise. Medwed notes that law enforcement officials may also conduct raids at night “for tactical reasons — to benefit from the element of surprise that could minimize the risk of evidence destruction, a violent response from a resident or the risk of flight from a suspect.” “Part of the calculus is whether the goal is to conduct a search or make an arrest,” he says. “The downside of surprise, as we know all too well from the tragic death of Breanna Taylor in Louisville after the execution of a ‘no-knock’ warrant, is that people may respond erratically when surprised.”
Rose Zoltek-Jick, an associate teaching professor of law and associate director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, notes that the timing of FBI raids depends on whether agents are conducting a search or carrying out an arrest. In the case of the Bolton raid, it was only the former.
