Updated October 16, 2025 at 12:08 PM HST
John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during President Trump's first term before becoming a vocal critic, was indicted on Thursday on 18 charges related to the mishandling of classified documents.
Details from the indictment filed in Maryland's district court charge Bolton with eight counts for the transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of such information. Each count faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
In a statement, the Justice Department said Bolton illegally transmitted classified information using a personal email and messaging applications, including U.S. "intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations."
"There is one tier of justice for all Americans," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. "Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable."
The charges come about two months after the FBI executed a search warrant at Bolton's suburban Washington home. Court papers said agents recovered documents marked as classified, including references to weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton served in Trump's first term in the White House for just over a year but has since become a sharp critic of the president. He has said he believed Trump would use the Department of Justice to enact a "retribution presidency."
The investigation against Bolton dates back to before Trump's return to office. Bolton's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the charges in the case were "resolved years ago." He said the charges stem from documents tied to Bolton's personal diaries, and never included classified information.
"Like many public officials throughout history, Amb. Bolton kept diaries — that is not a crime. We look forward to proving once again that Amb. Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information," Lowell said in a statement.
Bolton was one of the former administration officials whose security clearances Trump stripped when he returned to office. Trump also revoked Bolton's security detail, which was in place because of threats from Iran.
Bolton published The Room Where It Happened in 2020, a memoir about his time in the White House that was critical of Trump's approach to foreign policy and the presidency in general.
The Trump administration sued to try to block the book's publication, alleging that Bolton hadn't gone through the proper clearance process and that his manuscript contained classified information. A judge declined that request, but said Bolton's conduct raised national security concerns. The Biden administration dismissed the lawsuit, and prosecutors dropped a grand jury investigation the following year.
The charges against Bolton follow two other recent indictments, including against former FBI Director James Comey, another Trump critic, on one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice in connection with his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee nearly five years ago.
And a grand jury indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James last week on one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution. James, a Democrat, pledged to investigate Trump and won a case against him and his company for inflating the value of some of its properties.
Trump had publicly called on the Justice Department to prosecute James and Comey in a social media post last month; Bolton wasn't included in that post.
The indictments came after the top federal prosecutor in Northern Virginia cast doubt on the evidence against both Comey and James, only to be forced out by the president and replaced with one of Trump's former defense attorneys.
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