1:14Ex-CIA Director and retired Army General David Petraeus joins a Hudson Institute colloquy on Taiwan and Ukraine in Washington, D.C., July 28, 2025.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, FILE
An unedited transcript of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” broadcast Sunday, August 24, 2025 on ABC News, follows. This draft may not be final, could be revised and may contain small transcription mistakes. Past transcripts are in the “This Week” archive.
JONATHAN KARL, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR: Right here two Sundays ago, John Bolton slammed President Trump. He branded it a “vengeance presidency.” Twelve days after that, federal agents visited both his office and residence.
THIS WEEK starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I’m not a fan of John Bolton. Frankly, he’s a sleazeball to me.
KARL: The FBI zeroes in on the former national security adviser.
Are you anxious they might target you somehow?
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I view it as a payback administration.
KARL: And DOJ issues its sit-down with Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. She denies any client roster.
GHISLAINE MAXWELL, JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S ACCOMPLICE: There’s no roster. There has never been a list.
KARL: Chris Christie and Sarah Isgur on the legal and political aftershocks.
Negotiations stuck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, on Ukraine, how long are you giving Putin?
TRUMP: Several weeks. We’ll see what we can work out.
KARL: Another familiar Trump ultimatum but scant headway on peace talks.
Ex-CIA chief General David Petraeus on where things go from here.
Plus, the only time Zelenskyy ever sat across from Vladimir Putin.
And —
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The motion passes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They fired first.
KARL: The national fight over district maps. Rick Klein on which side has the edge ahead.
And our panel weighs in on Elon Musk’s pledge to launch a fresh party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, it’s THIS WEEK. Here now, Jonathan Karl.
KARL: Good morning. Welcome to THIS WEEK.
In a moment we’ll dig into the weekend’s bombshell: federal agents combing the home and office of former national security adviser John Bolton.
But first, the backdrop. This didn’t emerge from thin air. Bolton joins a growing roster of Trump critics now feeling the administration’s heat. Trump himself has floated jailing scores of adversaries—real or imagined—including former presidents Obama and Biden, ex-FBI chief James Comey and ex-special counsel Jack Smith. Prosecutors have also been sicced on former officials Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, New York AG Letitia James and Senator Adam Schiff.
Schiff and James are now pursued by Ed Martin—the head of the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group. Last week Martin posed outside James’s Brooklyn home in a trench coat for photos. His newest focus is Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook—not just probing her but ordering Chair Powell to sack her, writing, “Do it now, before it’s too late.” Trump, meanwhile, insists Cook step down; Cook vows she won’t be intimidated yet will respond to lawful inquiries.
Beyond lawsuits, Trump has revoked protection for several officials facing death threats. Loyalty purges have marched on steadily. Friday’s casualty was Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s director, after DIA concluded U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites did not wipe the facilities out—contradicting the president’s claim they were “totally destroyed.” At least 16 senior officers have been fired or reassigned since January; seven were women, leaving no active-duty four-star female flag officer.
Trump vowed payback against his political foes, and he’s plainly intent on delivering. Whether DOJ has solid proof against Bolton remains unknown, but he is the freshest opponent in the crosshairs.
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KARL (voice-over): Bolton pulled up Friday afternoon just after FBI agents hauled boxes out of his house; four remained inside.
REPORTER: What are agents seeking?
KARL (voice-over): The search—approved by two federal judges—lasted nearly eight hours. Sources say it hinged on claims Bolton still holds classified documents.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I’m not fond of Bolton. I’ve long thought he’s a lightweight. He may have been unpatriotic. We’ll find out.
KARL (voice-over): Warrants were signed in Maryland and D.C. Trump claims he had zero advance notice.
TRUMP: I try to keep my distance. Never liked Bolton— always felt he was shady. I only heard on the news that his place was searched. Remember, Mar-a-Lago was raided too.
KARL (voice-over): Minutes after agents hit Bolton’s residence, FBI Director Kash Patel posted, “No one is above the law. FBI agents on duty.”
Yet what is the mission—law enforcement or vendetta?
Bolton fell out with Trump after his 2019 firing and became a prime target. Trump accused him of leaking secrets in his memoir “The Room Where It Happened.”
TRUMP: In my view he’s a criminal and frankly ought to be imprisoned. I believe that will probably happen.
KARL (voice-over): In 2020, Trump tried to block the book’s release. The suit failed, but Judge Royce Lamberth wrote Bolton “gambled with national security; exposed the nation to harm and himself to civil and possible criminal liability.”
In our conversation with Martha Raddatz, Bolton denied wrongdoing.
JOHN BOLTON: Had I dropped classified details, the manuscript might have swelled by 500 pages. I had enough unclassified material.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Do you worry about indictment?
BOLTON: Under Donald Trump, normal rules are gone. Still, I’m confident nothing in the book is classified.
KARL (voice-over): On Inauguration Day, Trump yanked Bolton’s security detail despite a reported Iranian assassination plot.
Two weeks ago we asked Bolton if he feared retaliation.
KARL: You’re on the enemies list. Are you worried they will move against you?
BOLTON: They’ve already come after us—stripping the protection we had [from Iran] over the Soleimani strike. It’s a retribution administration.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KARL (on-camera): Joining me are ex-New Jersey governor and former federal prosecutor Chris Christie, alongside SCOTUSBLOG editor and former DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur.
Chris, to obtain warrants they needed two separate judges’ sign-off; that requires probable cause.
CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Exactly. Remember the Mar-a-Lago search—I said the same thing. A federal judge found probable cause; it doesn’t prove guilt, merely that evidence of a possible crime might be present. The same standard applies here. Two warrants—one in Maryland, one in D.C.—were signed. And, frankly, D.C. is anything but conservative. That suggests DOJ believes it has something. Now we wait and see.
KARL: Also, the FBI director tweeting live mid-raid—could you have pictured Chris Wray doing that during the Mar-a-Lago search?
CHRISTIE: I could not even imagine Wray on Twitter, period. He stayed off social media entirely. Kash Patel is a different breed.
KARL: Sarah, Trump says he had zero heads-up. But Attorney General Bondi must have known, right?
SARAH ISGUR, SCOTUSBLOG EDITOR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely. The AG would have green-lit this, and the deputy AG almost certainly coordinated as well. Presidents are usually kept in the dark on these moves.
Yet Trump has loudly demanded reprisals—he doesn’t have to give orders for loyal prosecutors to get the memo.
KARL: Trump first floated jailing Bolton back in 2020.
Let’s roll J.D. Vance on Friday:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We’re in the early phases of investigating John Bolton. We’ll let the probe unfold. If we ultimately charge him, it’ll be because the evidence proves he broke the law. We’ll be deliberate; we shouldn’t jail political opponents on a whim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: Chris—Vance said “we” three times. Does the VP now run criminal probes too?
CHRISTIE: Not by law. But Trump already declared he’s the “chief federal law enforcer,” so the line has vanished in his mind. The public was warned—Trump campaigned on weaponizing DOJ, and here we are.
KARL: Traditionally, officials won’t comment on pending investigations—
CHRISTIE: Seven years as a U.S. attorney I had one inviolate rule: never talk about open cases—until Main Justice rang to shut me up. Vance’s words would have earned that call back then.
KARL: Let’s turn to the other potential targets.
Ed Martin is pressing cases against Tish James, Adam Schiff and Lisa Cook—each rooted in mortgage-fraud claims that the applicants listed a primary residence that reportedly wasn’t.
Sarah, have you ever seen DOJ bring such a case ex nihilo—or only when the targets are Trump’s foes?
ISGUR: Mortgage fraud as the lone charge over whether a checkbox on residency is wrong would be unheard-of. DOJ does assign prosecutors to seven- and eight-figure fraud rings nationwide—this would break precedent.
Still, under Biden, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was hit with the same statute—so the precedent now cuts both ways.
KARL: In the time left—the Epstein files, or “Todd Blanche tapes.” DOJ released Deputy AG Todd Blanche’s audio interview with Epstein partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
Here’s a clip; Chris, your reaction—
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MAXWELL: President Trump was always courteous to me. I admire what he’s accomplished, I like him and always have.
TODD BLANCHE: Ever hear Epstein or anyone say Mr. Trump behaved improperly with masseuses in your sphere?
MAXWELL: Absolutely not.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KARL: Just a reminder: Maxwell is serving time for sex-trafficking minors for Epstein. Case closed?
CHRISTIE: A convicted trafficker asking us to trust her about the man who can sign her pardon? Please. It proves nothing against Trump—personally, I doubt any foul play—but believing Maxwell is preposterous.
KARL: Sarah, your quick take?
ISGUR: Why is a deputy AG spending a chunk of a week with an inmate who isn’t producing intel for an active case? Bizarre use of time.
KARL: And — reportedly — she soon transferred to a cushier facility.
CHRISTIE: Lower-security, yes.
KARL: Thanks, Chris and Sarah. Coming up: Putin and Zelenskyy did meet once—what their 2019 eight-hour talk tells us about a possible encore. General David Petraeus joins us in two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Sourse: abcnews.go.com
