Former Trump nationwide safety adviser John Bolton was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on prices that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained categorized paperwork.
The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Maryland, prices Bolton with eight counts of illegal transmission of nationwide protection data in addition to 10 counts of illegal retention of nationwide protection data.
Prosecutors accuse Bolton of utilizing a non-government private e-mail account and messaging utility to transmit at the least eight paperwork to unauthorized people that contained data categorized at ranges starting from Secret to Prime Secret.
Seven of the transmissions allegedly occurred throughout the time when Bolton was serving at Trump’s nationwide safety adviser in 2018 and 2019, whereas one other doc was allegedly despatched by Bolton simply days after President Donald Trump eliminated him from the administration in September of 2019.
The transfer comes on the heels of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James as President Donald Trump continues what critics name a marketing campaign of retribution in opposition to his perceived political foes.
Bolton has been a goal of Trump’s ire since leaving Trump’s first administration and publishing a tell-all e book. Federal brokers in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., workplace, associated to allegations that Bolton possessed categorized data.
Prosecutors say one doc listed within the indictment “reveals intelligence about future assault by adversarial group in a foreign country.” Others allegedly comprise details about international companions sharing delicate data with the U.S. intelligence group; intelligence associated to a international adversary’s missile launch plans; intelligence on leaders of a U.S. adversary; and one which detailed plans of covert motion by the U.S. authorities.
Former Nationwide Safety Advisor John Bolton listens to a query from a scholar on the John F. Kennedy Jr Discussion board on the Kennedy College of Authorities at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 29, 2025.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
The indictment accuses Bolton of abusing his place as nationwide safety adviser by sharing “greater than a thousand pages” of data in “diary-like entries” about his day-to-day actions with two recipients recognized solely as “Particular person 1” and “Particular person 2,” who prosecutors say are Bolton’s kinfolk.
Prosecutors additional allege that Bolton unlawfully retained paperwork, writing and notes containing nationwide protection data ranging to ranges of Prime Secret and Delicate Compartmented Data at his dwelling in Maryland, saved each as paper recordsdata and on quite a few private units.
The indictment says that sooner or later after Bolton left workplace as nationwide safety advisor, a cyber actor believed to be related to Iran hacked his private e-mail account and gained entry to the categorized data he had beforehand emailed to his kinfolk.
When Bolton reported the hack to U.S. authorities in July of 2021 beneath the Biden administration, prosecutors say he didn’t inform them of the allegedly delicate nationwide safety data he shared.
“The underlying information on this case have been investigated and resolved years in the past,” Bolton’s legal professional, Abbe Lowell, stated in a press release. “These prices stem from parts of Amb. Bolton’s private diaries over his 45-year profession — data which are unclassified, shared solely together with his fast household, and identified to the FBI way back to 2021. We stay up for proving as soon as once more that Amb. Bolton didn’t unlawfully share or retailer any data.”
“There’s one tier of justice for all People,” Lawyer Normal Pamela Bondi stated in a DOJ assertion saying the indictment. “Anybody who abuses a place of energy and jeopardizes our nationwide safety might be held accountable. Nobody is above the legislation.”
The ten paperwork the indictment says have been unlawfully retained by Bolton have been allegedly seized throughout the searches of his dwelling and workplace in August, and contained comparable data to the paperwork Bolton is alleged to have unlawfully transmitted throughout his time as nationwide safety adviser.
Bolton’s attorneys have denied he ever mishandled categorized data and stated paperwork investigators discovered of their search of his dwelling and residence have been not thought-about categorized.
Bolton has denied ever unlawfully eradicating categorized supplies from his time in authorities and has stated no such data was revealed in his 2019 memoir “The Room The place It Occurred.”
The investigation is being run out of the U.S. legal professional’s workplace in Maryland, in contrast to the Comey and James probes that are being carried out by the Trump-appointed U.S. legal professional within the Jap District of Virginia, who sources say introduced the Comey and James prices in opposition to the recommendation of profession prosecutors.
Comey, who was indicted on prices of mendacity to Congress, and James, who’s charged with mortgage fraud, have each denied wrongdoing.
Final month, a federal choose unsealed a redacted model of the affidavit that had been assembled by prosecutors with a purpose to execute their court-authorized search of Bolton’s dwelling. A lot of the doc involved allegations surrounding the publication of Bolton’s e book, which the primary Trump administration unsuccessfully sued to dam.
The federal choose overseeing that lawsuit expressed grave issues over whether or not Bolton had included extremely categorized data in his e book that might probably compromise nationwide safety.
On the day that Bolton’s dwelling and workplace have been searched, Trump stated that he was “unaware” of the searches however went on to name Bolton a “sleazebag.” Referencing the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago dwelling in his personal categorized paperwork case, Trump instructed reporters that having your private home searched is “not an excellent feeling.”
Trump pleaded not responsible in June 2023 to 40 prison counts associated to his dealing with of categorized supplies after leaving the White Home in 2021, after prosecutors stated he repeatedly refused to return tons of of paperwork containing categorized data and took steps to thwart the federal government’s efforts to get the paperwork again.
After Trump was reelected president final November, the case was dropped resulting from a long-standing Justice Division coverage barring the prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump, requested about Bolton in a June 2022 Oval Workplace interview with Fox Information, stated, “He took categorized data and he revealed it, throughout a presidency. It is one factor to jot down a e book after. Throughout. And I imagine that he is a prison, and I imagine, frankly, he ought to go to jail for that, and that in all probability, probably will occur. That is what ought to occur.”
