John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump in his first term, pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges relating to diary-like notes he shared that contained top secret information with relatives and stored classified documents at his home.
Bolton did not comment to reporters as he walked into the courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he surrendered to authorities and made an initial appearance before US magistrate judge Timothy Sullivan on the 18-count indictment filed against him.
Bolton earlier called the case the latest effort by the president to target his political enemies and his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, portrayed the matter as an attempt to punish his client for taking notes for a 2020 behind-the-scenes memoir The Room Where It Happened, which was critical of Trump and angered the administration.
“Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the justice department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” Bolton said in a statement.
But even though Bolton departed as national security adviser on bitter terms with Trump, the indictment was filed by career prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in Maryland and described how Bolton sent notes about his day-to-day activities over personal email accounts.
The indictment also laid out how Bolton’s email accounts were hacked by a foreign state actor believed to be Iran that gained access to the notes after he left government service, and how Bolton later printed the notes and kept them with classified-marked documents in his home.
The justice department pursues Espionage Act cases in the event of so-called “aggregating factors”: willful mishandling of classified information, vast quantities of classified information to support an inference of misconduct, disloyalty to the US and obstruction.
“Bolton took detailed notes documenting his day-to-day meetings, activities and briefings. Frequently, Bolton handwrote these notes on yellow notepads throughout his day at the White House complex or in other secure locations, and then later re-wrote his notes in a word processing document,” the indictment said.
The indictment added that Bolton used a group chat to send notes and documents containing top secret information while he was national security adviser to two unnamed people who did not have security clearances and are believed to be his wife and daughter.
Shortly before Bolton’s book was published, the previous Trump administration sued to delay its release, citing a classification review. The justice department also opened a criminal investigation into whether Bolton mishandled classified information by disclosing certain details in the book.
The Biden justice department initially dropped the lawsuit and grand jury investigation in 2021. They later reopened the investigation as the US intelligence community learned more about Bolton’s emails through a foreign spy service, according to people familiar with the matter.
Earlier this year, John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, conferred with Kash Patel, the FBI director, about Bolton’s emails and how they appeared to have been transcriptions of classified material. The briefing appeared to spur renewed interest in investigating Bolton, the people familiar with the matter said.
