Former National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks to reporters after speaking in a panel hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran – U.S. Representative Office (NCRI-US) at the Willard InterContinental Hotel on Aug. 17, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
John Bolton, a former national advisor to President Donald Trump, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Maryland.
Bolton is charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information. He served as Trump’s national security advisor from April 2018 through September 2019.
Bolton is the third high-profile Trump foe to be criminally charged in recent weeks after being criticized by the president.
The 26-page indictment says that Bolton, both during and after his tenure as Trump’s national security advisor, “abused his position … by sharing more than a thousand pages of his day-to-day activities as the National Security Advisor — including information relating to the national defense which was classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level-with two unauthorized individuals, namely Individuals 1 and 2.”
Those people, who were unidentified in the indictment, are relatives of Bolton and did not have security clearance to receive the information, the indictment says.
“Bolton also unlawfully retained documents, writings, and notes relating to the national defense, including information classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level, in his home in Montgomery County, Maryland,” the indictment said.
The charges against Bolton, who, like Trump, is a Republican, were unsealed shortly after the indictment was handed to a magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
Grand juries in Virginia recently separately indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges related to allegedly lying to Congress, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is accused of bank fraud related to a mortgage on a home she owns in Virginia.
They have denied any wrongdoing in those cases.
Trump was asked about the Bolton indictment by a reporter at the White House.
“I didn’t know that,” Trump said.
“You’re telling me for the first time, but I think he’s … a bad person,” Trump said. “Yeah, he’s a bad guy. It’s too bad. But that’s the way it goes right? That’s the way it goes.”
FBI agents on Aug. 22 raided Bolton’s Maryland home and office in Washington, D.C.
The raids are part of a “national security investigation in search of classified records,” a person familiar with the matter told NBC News at the time.
CNBC has requested comment from Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell.
FBI agents carry boxes as they exit the building that houses the Washington office of former National Security Adviser John Bolton, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 22, 2025.
Aaron Schwartz | Reuters
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
