John Bolton, dismissed from Donald Trump’s administration in 2019, has since become one of the former president’s outspoken critics. BBC
John Bolton, who once served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser before becoming one of his harshest critics, now faces criminal charges in the United States. A grand jury in Maryland indicted the 76-year-old former official after federal prosecutors presented evidence alleging he mishandled classified information.
The Department of Justice confirmed that FBI agents searched Bolton’s home and office in August. They were investigating how he handled sensitive material related to national defence. Prosecutors now accuse him of keeping and sharing top-secret information without proper authorization.
Bolton denies all wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated.
Details of the Indictment
Court documents filed Thursday in Greenbelt, Maryland, outline a total of 18 charges. Bolton faces eight counts of transmitting national defence information and ten counts of unlawfully retaining it. Each charge could carry up to ten years in prison.
Prosecutors claim he used personal email and messaging apps to send restricted intelligence. The information allegedly included details about foreign threats, possible attacks, and confidential foreign-policy discussions.
“These documents revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations,” the indictment states.
He is expected to surrender to authorities on Friday.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi emphasized the seriousness of the case. “No one is above the law,” she said in a statement announcing the indictment.
Bolton Responds to Charges
Bolton released a statement soon after the charges became public. He said he looked forward to defending his actions in court and accused Trump of using the Justice Department for revenge.
“Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he [Trump] deems to be his enemies,” Bolton said.
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argued that the allegations are based on diary entries Bolton kept over his 45-year career. “Like many public officials throughout history, Ambassador Bolton kept diaries – that is not a crime,” Lowell said.
He added that the entries were “unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021.”
Sources claim that Bolton may have shared parts of the information with his wife and daughter. Investigators say the records, described as “diary-like entries,” were printed and stored at his Maryland home.
A Long-Running Feud
Bolton’s conflict with Trump began after his firing from the administration in 2019. His 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, portrayed Trump as uninformed on world affairs. The White House tried to block the book’s release, saying it contained classified material. A judge refused the request, and the book was published soon after.
Bolton later became one of several former Trump critics targeted by federal investigations. Former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James have also faced criminal charges in recent months.
When asked about Bolton’s indictment, Trump said he was unaware of the details but called Bolton “a bad guy.”
