John Bolton Indicted on Federal Charges Amid Ongoing Political Turmoil

Sun Oct 19 2025 20:06:27 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Former national security adviser John Bolton has been charged with multiple offenses related to the unauthorized transmission of classified information, as the political landscape in the U.S. becomes increasingly contentious.

John Bolton, former national security adviser to Donald Trump, has been criminally indicted on charges of unlawfully retaining and transmitting classified national defense information. The indictment follows an FBI investigation and highlights the growing risks faced by Trump's critics, as Bolton maintains his innocence, claiming the charges are politically motivated.

John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump's national security adviser before becoming a vocal critic of the president, has been criminally indicted on federal charges.

The Department of Justice presented a case to a grand jury in Maryland on Thursday, and they agreed there was enough evidence to indict Bolton, who issued a statement maintaining his innocence.

It comes after FBI agents searched Bolton's home and office in August as part of an investigation into the handling of classified information.

The indictment makes Bolton, 76, the third of the US president's political opponents to face charges in recent weeks. He could face decades in prison.

According to a 26-page indictment filed at a court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Thursday, Bolton is charged with eight counts of transmission of national defence information (NDI) and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI.

Prosecutors accuse him of illegally transmitting top secret information about US national defence using his personal email and other messaging apps.

These documents revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations, the court papers state.

If found guilty, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge. He is expected to surrender to authorities on Friday.

No one is above the law, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the charges.

Bolton said in a statement that he looked forward to defending his lawful conduct in court as he accused Trump of seeking retribution against me.

Bolton's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the charges stemmed from diary entries kept by his client over his 45-year career in public service. He described the records as unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021.

According to CNN, Bolton is alleged to have shared the information with his wife and daughter.

The unauthorized information includes diary-like entries from Bolton's time as the National Security Advisor and were allegedly printed and stored at Bolton's home in Bethesda, Maryland.

Bolton was fired from Trump's first administration in 2019. His 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, recounted his time working under Trump and portrayed him as a president who was ill-informed about geopolitics.

The US Department of Justice then opened an investigation into whether Bolton had mishandled classified information by disclosing certain information in the book.

Asked about the indictment on Thursday at the White House, Trump said he did not know about it, but added that Bolton was a bad guy.

Bolton, who served as George W Bush's UN ambassador, was among former officials critical of Trump who had their Secret Service protection stripped in January.

New York City Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on bank fraud charges in October. Former FBI director James Comey was charged in late September with lying to Congress. The cases were filed after Trump urged the US attorney general to prosecute his political opponents.