Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton has been indicted on 18 federal criminal counts for allegedly mishandling classified information, after an FBI search of his Maryland home and Washington, DC office uncovered sensitive government files. The indictment claims Bolton shared classified material with his wife and daughter, whom he referred to as his “editors,” with discussions of including the material in a planned book. Prosecutors say the information included notes and summaries from meetings with senior US officials, foreign leaders, intelligence briefings, and topics related to weapons of mass destruction, strategic communications, and the US mission to the United Nations.
The charges are split between the transmission of national defense information (counts 1–8), alleging he sent eight classified documents to unauthorized recipients, and the retention of national defense information (counts 9–18), alleging he unlawfully kept ten classified documents at his residence. Conviction on all counts could result in decades of imprisonment.
Bolton has denied any wrongdoing, emphasizing his decades-long service to US national security and asserting that the materials in question were unclassified personal diaries shared only with family and known to the FBI since 2021. His attorney stressed that Bolton did not unlawfully store or disseminate classified content.
The indictment follows a prior legal dispute over Bolton’s 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, which the Trump White House alleged contained classified material. Bolton argued that the manuscript underwent proper pre-publication review and has characterized the allegations as politically motivated.
Former President Trump, who has long feuded with Bolton, criticized him when asked about the indictment, calling him a “bad person” despite appearing unaware of the charges beforehand. Bolton’s tenure in the Trump administration, from 2018 to 2019, was marked by clashes over Iran, North Korea, and Ukraine policy, ending with his resignation, announced by Trump on social media. Bolton’s broader career includes senior roles in the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, including as US ambassador to the United Nations during the Iraq War era.
The indictment, filed in Maryland by a career federal prosecutor, distinguishes it from other high-profile Trump-era cases handled in Virginia and highlights the ongoing legal scrutiny over the handling of classified materials by former senior officials.
