Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton charged with sharing classified information

GREENBELT, Maryland - US President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton was charged on Oct 16 in a sweeping indictment that accuses him of sharing sensitive government information with two of his relatives for possible use in a book he was writing.

The indictment marked the third time in recent weeks that the Justice Department has secured criminal charges against one of Mr Trump’s critics.

The indictment says the notes Bolton shared with his two relatives in electronic messages included information he had gleaned from meetings with senior government officials, discussions with foreign leaders, and intelligence briefings.

In some of the chats, Bolton and his relatives – whom the indictment does not identify – discussed using some of the material for a book.

Bolton referred to the two people with whom he shared his daily notes as his “editors”, the indictment said.

“Talking with (book publisher) because they have a right of first refusal!” Bolton wrote in one message, according to the indictment.

The two relatives referred to in the indictment are Bolton’s wife and daughter, said two people familiar with the matter.

In a statement, Bolton said: “I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power.”

Bolton’s lawyer, Mr Abbe Lowell, said Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information.

Mr Trump, a Republican who campaigned for the presidency on a vow of retribution after facing a slew of legal woes once his first term in the White House ended in 2021, has dispensed with decades-long norms designed to insulate federal law enforcement from political pressures.

In recent months, he has actively pushed Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department to bring charges against his perceived adversaries, including former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey
and New York Attorney General Letitia James, even driving out a prosecutor he deemed to be moving too slowly in doing so.

The investigation of Bolton was opened in 2022, predating the Trump administration.

Inside the Justice Department, the case is viewed as stronger than the prosecutions of Comey and James, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The indictment, filed in a federal court in Maryland, charges Bolton with eight counts of transmission of national defence information and 10 counts of retention of national defence information, all in violation of the Espionage Act.

No court appearance date was listed for Bolton as at the evening of Oct 16.

Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted, but any sentence would be determined by a judge based on a range of factors.

Asked by reporters at the White House about the Bolton indictment on Oct 16, Mr Trump said: “He’s a bad guy.”

Bolton’s e-mail allegedly hacked

Bolton served as White House national security adviser during Mr Trump’s first term before emerging as one of the President’s most vocal critics.

Bolton, also a former US ambassador to the United Nations, described Mr Trump as unfit to be president in a memoir he released in 2024.

In the indictment, prosecutors said Bolton shared more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities as national security adviser, including top secret information, with two unauthorised people from April 2018 to August 2025.

The indictment said a “cyber actor” tied to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s personal e-mail after he left government service and accessed classified information.

Prosecutors said a representative for Bolton told the government about the hack but did not report that he stored classified information in the e-mail account.

Mr Trump himself was previously indicted on Espionage Act violations for allegedly transporting classified records to his Florida home after departing the White House in 2021 and refusing repeated requests by the government to return them.

He had pleaded not guilty, and that case was dropped after he won re-election in November 2024.

Other Trump foes charged

The Justice Department has already indicted Comey, who investigated Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and James, who previously brought a civil fraud case against Mr Trump and his family real estate company.

Comey, whom Mr Trump fired in 2017, is facing charges of making false statements to Congress and obstruction of Congress. He has pleaded not guilty.

James is facing charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. She has denied wrongdoing and is slated to appear in federal court later in October.

In those two cases, the indictments were secured solely by Ms Lindsey Halligan, a Trump loyalist who was appointed US Attorney after her predecessor Erik Siebert was ousted for failing to pursue both matters due to a lack of evidence.

The indictment of Bolton was signed by Maryland US Attorney Kelly Hayes, who has been a federal prosecutor since 2013 and has held multiple leadership roles.

The indictment also bore the names of several career prosecutors, including Mr Thomas Sullivan, who leads the Maryland office’s national security division.

Nevertheless, the Justice Department still runs the risk of being viewed as unfairly selective in its decision to prosecute Bolton for Espionage Act violations.

Earlier in 2025, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth drew scrutiny
for sharing details about an imminent attack against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a Signal message group that included his wife, brother, personal lawyer, as well as a journalist from the Atlantic magazine.

Legal experts suggested that sharing these sensitive details of the Yemen attack appeared to violate the Espionage Act, but the case was quickly closed and the Justice Department took no apparent steps to criminally investigate the incident.

Trump administration officials denied that any classified information was shared. REUTERS