President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton was indicted in Maryland on Thursday on charges of mishandling classified information.
Bolton is the third prominent Trump critic to be indicted in recent weeks. Asked by reporters about the Bolton indictment, Mr. Trump said he was not aware of the charges, but: “I think he’s a bad guy.”
Bolton was charged in the 26-page indictment with 18 criminal counts, including eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of retaining national defense information.
The indictment alleges he “abused his position as National Security Advisor by sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” with two unnamed relatives, including information with top secret classification.
It says he sent “diary-like entries” to the two people using a nongovernmental email, “such as email accounts hosted by AOL and Google,” to send classified information up to the top secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information level, a designation that means it was derived from sensitive intelligence sources. He also allegedly printed out many of those entries and stored them in his Maryland home.
At some point between 2019 and 2021, the indictment says, Bolton’s email account was hacked by a “cyber actor” believed to be linked to Iran. It alleges that Bolton told federal officials about the hack but didn’t specify that there was classified information on his account, or that he had shared the information with two relatives.
Bolton is also accused in the indictment of printing out some of the entries with national defense information and storing them at his home in Montgomery County, Maryland. Prosecutors allege some of this information was also saved and stored on personal electronic devices used by Bolton and others in his personal residence.
The diary entries allegedly included “detailed information that BOLTON learned from meetings with senior members of the U.S. Government, intelligence briefings from members of the intelligence community and military, discussions with foreign leaders and foreign intelligence and military organizations, and intelligence products and reports.”
In some cases, the indictment says, Bolton and his relatives traded observations about the diary entries. “Stuff coming to cheer you… up!!!” Bolton allegedly wrote in one message affixed to a 20-page document.
This is a breaking story; it will be updated.
