Trump national security adviser John Bolton has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland on 18 counts of unlawfully retaining and transmitting classified national defense information. Prosecutors allege Bolton improperly shared more than 1,000 pages of diary-style notes drawn from his time in government with two relatives who lacked security clearances.
According to the indictment, the documents contained sensitive information about U.S. intelligence operations, foreign adversaries, and covert actions. Some materials were marked Top Secret, and investigators say Bolton used personal email and messaging apps to share the content — violating security protocols for handling classified information.
The FBI launched a wide-ranging investigation that included searches of Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, D.C. office in August 2025. Agents reportedly seized notebooks, laptops, and files believed to include restricted material. The case also ties back to his controversial 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, which the Trump administration had previously tried to block over concerns about national security disclosures.
Bolton’s defense team has strongly denied the charges. His attorney argued that none of the shared material was classified and accused the Justice Department of pursuing a politically motivated case. “This is an abuse of prosecutorial power aimed at silencing a critic of Donald Trump,” the defense said in a statement.
Bolton is scheduled to make his first court appearance later this month. If convicted, he could face decades in prison, though legal experts note that such cases are often resolved through plea agreements rather than full trials.
