A federal grand jury has indicted Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-prominent critic John Bolton, marking yet another criminal prosecution of the president’s perceived political enemies.
The 18-count indictment alleges Bolton illegally sent hundreds of pages of classified national defense information to people believed to his immediate family, including information from foreign intelligence and details about covert actions from the U.S. government, among other documents labeled “top secret.”
Bolton is accused of sending “diary-like entries” to people identified only as “individuals 1 and 2” — who are believed to be his wife and daughter — that he transcribed from hand-written notes containing classified material, the document says.
The 26-page document also accuses Bolton of printing out and storing sensitive material at his home, whose home in Bethesda, Maryland, was raided by the FBI in August.
Those emails were later hacked by a person believed to be working for the Iranian government, according to the indictment.
“A representative for Bolton notified the U.S. government of the hack in or about July 2021, but did not tell the U.S. government that the account contained national defense information, including classified information, that Bolton had placed in the account from his time as national security adviser,” according to the indictment.
The allegations appear to cover a period in which Bolton was collecting material for his tell-all book about his time in the first Trump administration, and Bolton issued a damning rebuke of the allegations against him in a searing statement Thursday night.
No charges were brought him against him after material was cleared for use in his 2020 bookThe Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir, but “then came Trump 2 who embodies what Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police once said, ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime,’” Bolton wrote Thursday.
“The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement Thursday.
The charges stem from portions of his personal diaries, “records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021,” Lowell added.
“Like many public officials throughout history, [Bolton] kept diaries — that is not a crime,” he said. “We look forward to proving once again that [Bolton] did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
- Bolton is accused of illegally emailing national defense information in 26-page indictment
- The 18-count indictment charges him with the unlawful transmission and retention of those documents
- He faces up to 10 years in prison for each count, if convicted
- Bolton and his defense attorney say materials from his personal diaries were cleared for use years ago
In August, agents had also searched Bolton’s office in Washington, D.C., and allegedly seized records with classification markings, including documents that referenced weapons of mass destruction and government communications, according to court documents.
Following the raids, Lowell said the material was nothing more than “the ordinary records of a 40-year career serving this country.”
Documents bearing classified markings included material from Bolton’s time working under President George W. Bush’s administration, when Bolton was serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and had been cleared for his personal use several years ago, Lowell said at the time.
The indictment marks the third case in as many weeks against a prominent Trump critic, after the president publicly instructed the Department of Justice and Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin politically motivated criminal prosecutions against his enemies. “We can’t delay,” Trump wrote last month.
After leaving the first Trump administration, from which the president claims Bolton was fired, the veteran diplomat publishedThe Room Where it Happened, a scathing account of the first days of Trump’s presidency, where an “erratic” Trump emerged as a “stunningly uninformed leader,” Bolton wrote.
Trump would later face a blockbuster federal indictment for withholding dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago compound after leaving the White House — the same statute his foe Bolton is now accused of breaking.
But unlike the indictments against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, which were brought by Trump’s former personal attorney Lindsey Halligan, the case against Bolton is being handled by Maryland U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes, who was tapped by Trump to lead the office in February.
The indictment was presented to a grand jury by career prosecutor Tom Sullivan, who also signed the document.
Bolton faces eight counts of the transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention.
If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison for each count, though it is unlikely a judge would issue a maximum penalty.
“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Bondi said in a statement Thursday. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
“He’s a bad guy,” Trump said from the White House Thursday in response to a question about the indictment, moments after it was filed. “That’s the way it goes.”
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