John Bolton, former Trump adviser, charged with sharing classified information

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Greenbelt: President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton was indicted on Thursday in a massive indictment that alleges he shared sensitive government information with two of his relatives for possible use in a book. is

The indictment marks the third time in recent weeks that the Justice Department has obtained criminal charges against a Trump critic.

The indictment says Bolton shared notes in electronic messages with two relatives that included information he gleaned from meetings with senior government officials, conversations with foreign leaders and intelligence briefings.

In some of the chats, Bolton and his relatives, who have not been identified in the indictment, discussed using some of the material for a book. The indictment states that Bolton referred to two people with whom he shared his daily notes as his “editors.”

“Talking with [book publisher] Because they have the right of first refusal! ” Bolton wrote in one message, according to the indictment.

The two relatives the man cited in the indictment are Bolton’s wife and daughter, two people familiar with the matter said.

In a statement, Bolton said, “I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and expose his abuse of power.”

Bolton’s attorney, Abby Lowell, said Bolton did not illegally share or store any information.

The Republican, who campaigned for the presidency in 2021 after facing multiple legal troubles once his first term in the White House ends, has clashed with decades of rules designed to insulate federal law enforcement from political pressure.

In recent months, he has actively pushed with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department to bring charges against his perceived opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, even firing a prosecutor he perceived as moving too slowly to do so.

Bolton’s investigation opened in 2022, predicting the Trump administration. Within the Justice Department, the case is considered stronger than the prosecutions of Comey and James, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Bolton’s indictment, filed in federal court in Maryland, charges him with eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of retaining national defense information, all in violation of the Espionage Act.

No court appearance date had been set for Bolton as of Thursday evening.

Each count could carry up to 10 years in prison if Bolton is convicted, but any sentence will be determined by a judge based on a variety of factors.

Asked by reporters at the White House about the Bolton indictment on Thursday, Trump said: “He’s a bad guy.”

Bolton’s email was reportedly hacked

Bolton served as the White House’s national security adviser during Trump’s first term before emerging as the president’s most outspoken critic.

Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, called Trump unfit to be president in a memo released last year.

In the indictment, prosecutors said Bolton shared more than 1,000 pages of information about his day-to-day activities as national security adviser with two unauthorized individuals from April 2018 to August 2025.

The indictment alleges that a “cyber actor” connected to the Iranian government hacked Bolton’s personal email after leaving government services and accessing classified information. A Bolton representative told the government about the hack but did not report that he had stored classified information in the email account, prosecutors said.

Trump himself has previously been indicted for violations of the Espionage Act by allegedly turning over classified records to his Florida home after he left the White House in 2021 and after repeatedly denying requests from the government. Trump pleaded not guilty and the case was dismissed after he won the election in November 2024.

Other Trump foes charged

The Justice Department has already indicted Comey, who investigated Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and James, who previously brought a civil fraud case against Trump and his family real estate company.

Comey, who Trump fired in 2017, faces charges of making false statements to Congress and obstruction of Congress. He has pleaded not guilty.

James faces charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. He has denied wrongdoing and is scheduled to appear in federal court later this month.

In those two cases, the charges were obtained solely by Trump loyalist Lindsay Halligan, who was appointed U.S. attorney after her predecessor, Eric Seibert, was ousted for failing to pursue both cases due to a lack of evidence.

Bolton’s indictment was signed by Maryland U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes, who has been a federal prosecutor since 2013 and has held a number of leadership roles. The indictment also named several career prosecutors, including Thomas Sullivan, who leads the Maryland office’s national security division.

Nonetheless, the Justice Department still ran the risk of being unfairly selective in its decision to prosecute Bolton for violations of the Espionage Act.

Earlier this year, U.S. Defense Secretary Pat Hegseth came under scrutiny for sharing details about an attack against Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthis in a signal message group that included his wife, brother, personal lawyer, as well as an Atlantic magazine journalist.

Legal experts suggested that sharing these sensitive details of the Yemen attack violated the Espionage Act, but the case was quickly closed, and the Justice Department made no apparent move to criminally investigate the incident.

Trump administration officials denied that any classified information was shared.