A federal grand jury in Maryland has indicted John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, on multiple counts under the Espionage Act, accusing him of improperly retaining and transmitting classified national defence information.
The indictment, unsealed Thursday in federal court, includes eight counts of transmission of national defence information and 10 counts of retention, each carrying a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, denied wrongdoing, saying his client “did not unlawfully share or store any information.” Lowell described the case as a political vendetta against a prominent critic of Trump.
Bolton, who also served as US ambassador to the United Nations, was once a key Trump ally but became one of his fiercest opponents after leaving the White House in 2019. His 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, portrayed Trump as dangerously unfit for office and sparked months of litigation over alleged classified material.
According to the Justice Department, FBI agents raided Bolton’s home and office two months ago, seizing two cellphones, folders marked “Trump I-IV,” and a binder titled “statements and reflections to Allied Strikes.” Investigators also found documents referencing weapons of mass destruction and US communications strategy.
Prosecutors allege that Bolton used personal email and private messaging platforms to send top secret documents and retained more than 1,000 pages of intelligence material at his home. Some of the shared notes reportedly contained details from meetings with foreign leaders and senior officials.
The indictment also claims that an Iranian-linked cyber actor hacked Bolton’s personal email after he left government service, gaining access to classified information. Prosecutors say Bolton never reported that he had stored government material in the account.
Lowell pushed back on that claim, calling the seized materials portions of Bolton’s personal diaries spanning his 45-year career.
“These records were unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021,” he said. “Keeping diaries is not a crime.”
The indictment comes amid an increasingly politicised Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom Trump has publicly pressured to prosecute his opponents. Bolton’s case follows a pattern of legal actions against figures critical of the administration.
Asked about the charges, Trump told reporters, “He’s a bad guy.”
Bolton’s tenure as national security adviser from 2018 to 2019 was marked by sharp disagreements with Trump over Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan. He was dismissed after clashing with the president’s diplomatic style and later accused him of compromising national security for personal political goals.
A 2020 National Security Council review of Bolton’s book concluded it contained “significant amounts” of classified material, a finding Bolton disputed at the time. The new indictment appears to resurrect those concerns, now with criminal stakes.
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