John Bolton indicted over handling of classified materials

Chris Strohm and Benjamin Penn, Bloomberg News on Oct 16, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has charged John Bolton, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump during his first term, with allegedly mishandling classified materials.

Bolton was indicted on 18 counts by a federal grand jury in Maryland. He’s accused of breaking laws related to the transmission or retention of national defense information, according to a copy of the indictment made public Thursday.

The alleged misconduct spanned from about April 2018 to August 2025, according to the indictment. Bolton “abused his position as National Security Advisor by sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities” on the job, prosecutors said.

Bolton, who became one of Trump’s fiercest critics, is the latest of the president’s perceived enemies to face charges. Bolton has previously denied mishandling classified information.

“Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “No one is above the law.”

Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said his client hadn’t broken the law.

“The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago” Lowell said in a statement. “These charges stem from portions of Ambassador Bolton’s personal diaries over his 45-year career — records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021. Like many public officials throughout history, Ambassador Bolton kept diaries — that is not a crime. We look forward to proving once again that Ambassador Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information.”

Federal prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing a confidential information. Officials had been discussing terms for Bolton to turn himself in, Bloomberg has reported.

Between April 2018 and September 2019, Bolton allegedly “sent diary-like entries” to two unnamed individuals — who were identified as being related to Bolton — that contained top secret information, according to the indictment. Bolton sent some of the information using his personal email accounts, such as those hosted by AOL and Google, prosecutors said.

Information that Bolton allegedly mishandled included details about covert action plans and pending attacks, human intelligence gathered using sensitive sources and methods, and intelligence on an adversary’s leaders, according to the indictment.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he hadn’t reviewed the case against Bolton, but described his former adviser as “a bad person.”

Bolton allegedly used a group chat to send some messages. According to the indictment, one of the unnamed individuals asked why they were using a group chat. Bolton replied: “For Diary in the future!!!”

FBI agents searched Bolton’s home and Washington office in August. They found items marked as classified, secret and confidential during the office search, according to an earlier court filing.

The charges against Bolton mark an escalation in Trump’s retribution campaign against some of his fiercest critics. Prosecutors recently secured indictments of former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom have denied the allegations and said they will fight them in court.

A description of the documents collected during the search of Bolton’s office indicated they contained information about weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. mission to the United Nations and plans for government strategic communications, according to the filing. Bolton served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under former President George W. Bush.

“An objective and thorough review will show nothing inappropriate was stored or kept by Ambassador Bolton,” defense lawyer Lowell said after the classified documents were found at his office. “These materials, many of which are documents that had been previously approved as part of a pre-publication review for Ambassador Bolton’s book, were reviewed and closed years ago.”