Former Trump nationwide safety adviser John Bolton was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on fees that he allegedly unlawfully transmitted and retained categorised paperwork.
The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Maryland, fees 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 not less than eight paperwork to unauthorized people that contained data categorised at ranges starting from Secret to High 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.
“For 4 many years, I’ve devoted my life to America’s international coverage and nationwide safety. I might by no means compromise these targets,” Bolton stated in a prolonged assertion, saying the indictment is a part of a sample of “Donald Trump’s retribution” towards him since leaving Trump’s first administration and publishing a tell-all ebook.
“I look ahead to the battle to defend my lawful conduct and to show his abuse of energy,” Bolton stated within the assertion.
The transfer to indict Bolton comes on the heels of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James as President Donald Trump continues what critics name a campaign of retribution towards his perceived political foes.
Federal brokers in August searched Bolton’s Maryland residence and Washington, D.C., workplace, associated to allegations that Bolton possessed categorised data.
Prosecutors say one doc listed within the indictment “reveals intelligence about future assault by adversarial group overseas.” 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 pupil on the John F. Kennedy Jr Discussion board on the Kennedy Faculty 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 knowledge 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 kin.
Sources instructed ABC Information that the kin referred to within the indictment as ‘Particular person 1’ and ‘Particular person 2’ are Bolton’s spouse and daughter.
Bolton’s spouse was current at their residence the day the search was executed practically two months in the past.
It was not instantly clear which is believed to be Particular person 1 or 2.
Prosecutors additional allege that Bolton unlawfully retained paperwork, writing and notes containing nationwide protection data ranging to ranges of High Secret and Delicate Compartmented Data at his residence in Maryland, saved each as paper information and on a variety of private units.
The indictment says that in some unspecified time in the future after Bolton left workplace as nationwide safety adviser, a cyber actor believed to be related to Iran hacked his private e mail account and gained entry to the categorised data he had beforehand emailed to his kin.
When Bolton reported the hack to U.S. authorities in July of 2021 underneath the Biden administration, prosecutors say he didn’t inform them of the allegedly delicate nationwide safety data he shared.
What Bolton and his attorneys say
Bolton has denied ever unlawfully eradicating categorised supplies from his time in authorities and has stated no such data was revealed in his 2020 memoir “The Room The place It Occurred.”
In his assertion on Thursday, Bolton stated his ebook was “reviewed and permitted by the suitable, skilled profession clearance officers.”
Concerning the 2021 e mail hack, Bolton stated the FBI “was made absolutely conscious.”
“These fees aren’t nearly his deal with me or my diaries, however his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to make sure that he alone determines what is claimed about his conduct,” Bolton stated within the assertion, referring to Trump. “Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America’s constitutional system, and vitally vital to our freedom.”
Bolton’s attorneys have denied he ever mishandled categorised data and stated paperwork investigators discovered of their search of his residence and residence have been now not thought of categorised.
“The underlying information on this case have been investigated and resolved years in the past,” Bolton’s legal professional, Abbe Lowell, stated in an announcement. “These fees stem from parts of Amb. Bolton’s private diaries over his 45-year profession — data which are unclassified, shared solely along with his fast household, and recognized to the FBI way back to 2021. We look ahead to 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,” Legal professional Basic 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 regulation.”
The ten paperwork the indictment says have been unlawfully retained by Bolton have been allegedly seized throughout the searches of his residence and workplace in August, and contained related data to the paperwork Bolton is alleged to have unlawfully transmitted throughout his time as nationwide safety adviser.
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 performed by the Trump-appointed U.S. legal professional within the Jap District of Virginia, who sources say introduced the Comey and James fees against the advice of profession prosecutors.
Comey, who was indicted on fees of mendacity to Congress, and James, who’s charged with mortgage fraud, have each denied wrongdoing.
Final month, a federal decide unsealed a redacted model of the affidavit that had been assembled by prosecutors so as to execute their court-authorized search of Bolton’s residence. Many of the doc involved allegations surrounding the publication of Bolton’s ebook, which the primary Trump administration unsuccessfully sued to dam.
The federal decide overseeing that lawsuit expressed grave issues over whether or not Bolton had included extremely categorised data in his ebook that might doubtlessly compromise nationwide safety.
On the day that Bolton’s residence 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 residence in his personal classified documents case, Trump instructed reporters that having your own home searched is “not a superb feeling.”
Trump pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to 40 prison counts associated to his dealing with of categorised supplies after leaving the White Home in 2021, after prosecutors stated he repeatedly refused to return a whole lot of paperwork containing categorised 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 because of 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 categorised data and he revealed it, throughout a presidency. It is one factor to put in writing a ebook after. Throughout. And I imagine that he is a prison, and I imagine, frankly, he ought to go to jail for that, and that most likely, probably will occur. That is what ought to occur.”
