John Bolton Indicted: Ex-Trump Adviser Accused of Mishandling Top-Secret Documents

By staff, Agencies

Former US "National Security" Adviser John Bolton has been indicted on multiple counts of mishandling and transmitting classified national defense information, marking the latest in a growing list of security breaches involving senior American officials.

A federal grand jury in Maryland charged Bolton on Thursday with eight counts of transmitting and ten counts of unlawfully retaining top-secret documents.

According to FBI Director Kash Patel, the investigation found that Bolton had used personal online accounts to transmit classified material and kept sensitive documents at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, “in direct violation of federal law.”

“Anyone who threatens our national security will be held accountable,” Patel said.

The Justice Department noted that the materials contained intelligence on foreign adversaries, potential attacks, and foreign-policy relations, including information about informants and leadership profiles of adversarial states.

Federal agents reportedly raided Bolton’s home and Washington, DC office earlier this summer, alleging that he retained restricted files even after the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility [SCIF] in his residence had been decommissioned following his departure from the Trump administration.

A veteran diplomat, Bolton served as US ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush and later as Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019.

His attorney, Abbe Lowell, rejected the charges, claiming they stem from personal diary entries collected over Bolton’s 45-year public career.

“These records are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021,” she said.

Once a key figure in shaping hawkish US foreign policy, Bolton has become an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, calling him “unfit to be president.” Trump has dismissed him in turn as “one of the dumbest people in government.”

The indictment adds yet another layer to the political and legal drama surrounding figures from the Trump administration, underscoring ongoing tensions between national security institutions and political elites in Washington.