Former Trump adviser John Bolton indicted for mishandling US defence secrets

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, was indicted on Thursday on charges of retaining and transmitting national defence 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 any wrongdoing.

According to court records, the indictment follows documents made public last month revealing that Bolton was under federal investigation for the potential mishandling of classified information.

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 forcing out a prosecutor he deemed to be moving too slowly in doing so.

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Other Trump foes charged

Bolton served as US 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.

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, faces 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 scheduled to appear in federal court later this month.

Senior leaders at the US Justice Department had been pushing for swift charges against Bolton, despite initial concern from some line prosecutors in Maryland, as well as lawyers 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 and worked over the weekend to prepare the case, one of those sources added.

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FBI searched Bolton’s home

FBI agents conducted a search of Bolton’s home and office in August, seeking evidence of possible violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to remove, retain or transmit national defence records, according to partially unsealed search warrants filed in federal court.

At his Maryland home, agents seized two mobile phones, documents in folders labelled “Trump I–IV”, and a binder marked “Statements and Reflections to Allied Strikes”, according to court documents.

They also found records labelled “confidential”, including documents referencing weapons of mass destruction, the US mission to the United Nations, and other materials related to the government’s strategic communications inside his Washington DC office, according to court records.

Court filings also show that a foreign entity hacked Bolton’s email account, though details of the hack were redacted. Bolton’s lawyer has previously said the records seized by the FBI were ordinary documents for a former government official to possess.

Trump himself was previously indicted on Espionage Act violations for allegedly transporting classified records to his Florida home after leaving the White House in 2021 and refusing repeated government requests to return them. Trump pleaded not guilty, and that case was dropped after he won re-election in November 2024.

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

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)