I want to welcome everyone to the beat.

I'm Ari Melburgh, and we begin with the president continuing the retribution campaign.

The once secret, then exposed orders that he gave are being carried out,

and now he's bearing down on a former employee, now a perceived enemy.

This is breaking news.

MSNBC reporting a Maryland grand jury has been now hearing evidence. What has been for weeks, but breaking tonight is we know about it. And they are building apparently a case that is against a Trump-perceived enemy and yet one who worked for President Trump. Long-time neo-conservative foreign policy voice John Bolton.

Now the suggestion is they are close to getting where they, the Trump DOJ officials, want,

and they're trying to cook up this case to get a grand jury indictment, and that could come as soon as next week.

The case has sped up. Bolton, of course,

was the former national security advisor to President Trump, a top U.S. official. And since leaving office, while he is not a lefty going to know King's protests, he has referred to what he learned

in that time and his view, based on the evidence, about what Donald Trump is doing.

You could put him in a category of more of a Mike Pence than a James Comey, one who served loyally to Donald Trump for years,

and was, of course, a longtime Republican, whose main offense, according to Donald Trump,

is that he has referred to things that Trump is doing that are contrary to law or Bolton's view of sound policy.

MSNBC reporting that the figure who has seen as Trump's retribution czar, Ed Martin, has been meeting with the acting U.S. attorney on the case.

That itself is unusual. FBI agents did search Bolton's home in August. We know about that.

That's been reported. And Trump, who has continued to vacillate between denying that he's in charge

of these revenge prosecutions and then bragging or publicly suggesting that he can do whatever he wants.

Well, here's what he said then.

No, I don't know about it. I saw it on television this morning. I know nothing about it. I just saw it this morning. They did a raid. I don't want to know about it. It's not necessary. I could know about it. I could be the one starting it. I'm actually the chief law enforcement officer, but I feel that it's better this way.

That's the president's sort of public description balancing what everyone knows, which is that he has been vowing these type of revenge prosecutions. But even Donald Trump also has understood and

even learned in the first term about where the limits might be and that you don't necessarily want to admit that you're building revenge political cases that turn on the people rather than the criminal evidence if there is any.

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