Ex-Donald Trump NSA John Bolton Indicted: All About The 18 Charges
Bolton, 76, served as US National Security Adviser from 2018 to 2019 and has held other high-level government positions.
· NDTVNew Delhi:
John Bolton, former US National Security Adviser under President Donald Trump, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland. He faces 18 charges: eight for sharing national defence secrets and ten for keeping them.
The charges come from Bolton sending more than 1,000 pages of "diary" notes about his work in the White House to two family members who did not have security clearances. These notes included sensitive national defence details, some classified as top secret.
Who Is John Bolton?
Bolton, 76, served as US National Security Adviser from 2018 to 2019 and has held other high-level government positions, including US Ambassador to the United Nations. Known as a hawk on foreign policy, he later became one of Trump's most vocal critics, writing a memoir, The Room Where It Happened, critical of the president.
The Investigation
The Justice Department's probe focused partly on Bolton's use of personal email and messaging apps, including an AOL account, to record and share his day-to-day activities.
Some of the emails were later hacked by an Iranian-linked actor. Officials say Bolton did not disclose that these accounts contained classified information. The investigation, which was conducted under the Biden administration, was handled through normal Justice Department channels, unlike other cases where Trump intervened to remove or reassign prosecutors.
What John Bolton Said
Bolton has called the indictment a political attack by Trump.
"When my e-mail was hacked in 2021, the FBI was made fully aware. In four years of the prior administration, after these reviews, no charges were ever filed," Bolton said in a statement, as per ABC News. "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.'"
He claimed the charges were Trump's "intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct."
"Dissent and disagreement are foundational to America's constitutional system, and vitally important to our freedom. I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and to expose his abuse of power," he added.
Conviction
If convicted, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison per count, potentially spending the rest of his life behind bars. He is expected to surrender to authorities and appear in court in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The case is part of other high-profile investigations under the Espionage Act, which has been used in past cases involving Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
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