Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton charged with mishandling classified info

REUTERS/BRIAN SNYDER/FILE PHOTO

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton listens to a question from a student at the John F. Kennedy Jr Forum at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on Sept. 29. Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, was indicted today, CNN reported, citing two sources.

GREENBELT, Maryland >> John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, was indicted today on charges of mishandling classified information, marking the third time in recent weeks the Justice Department has secured criminal charges against one of the Republican president’s critics.

Bolton’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His lawyer had previously denied that Bolton engaged in wrongdoing.

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

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

Trump, 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, even driving out a prosecutor he deemed to be moving too slowly in doing so.

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

Bolton served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations as well as White House national security adviser during Trump’s first term before emerging as one of the president’s most vocal critics. He described Trump as unfit to be president in a memoir he released last year.

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 unauthorized people from April 2018 to August 2025. The indictment did not name the recipients.

The indictment says the notes Bolton shared with the two people included information he gleaned from meetings with senior government officials, discussions with foreign leaders, and intelligence briefings.

Prosecutors said a “cyber actor” tied to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s personal email after he left government service and accessed classified information. A representative for Bolton told the government about the hack but did not report that he stored classified information in the email account, according to the indictment.

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. Trump had pleaded not guilty and that case was dropped after he won reelection in November 2024.

The charges against Bolton come shortly after the Justice Department indicted former FBI director James Comey, who investigated Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who previously brought a civil fraud case against Trump and his family real estate company.

Comey, whom 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 this month.

Senior leaders at the U.S. Justice Department had been pushing for swift charges against Bolton, despite initial concern from some line prosecutors in Maryland, as well as attorneys in the National Security Division who felt more investigation was needed and feared the case was being rushed, two people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.

Prosecutors more recently concluded they were comfortable proceeding after taking more time to review the evidence, one of those sources added.

The case against Bolton is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Maryland. That office is separately investigating Trump’s long-time critic Democratic U.S. Senator Adam Schiff of California for possible mortgage fraud. Schiff has denied wrongdoing, and has not been charged with a crime.

Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Trevor Hunnicut in Washington.

See more:National news

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