Former National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks to reporters after speaking at a panel discussion hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran-United States Mission (NCRI-US) at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, DC, on August 17, 2022.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Maryland on charges of mishandling classified information.
Bolton, 76, is the third high-profile Trump president to face criminal charges in recent weeks, following widespread criticism by the president.
The 26-page indictment in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt charges the Republican with eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of possessing national defense information.
Bolton is suspected of sharing classified information with two relatives while serving as President Trump’s national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, and storing the information at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, after leaving the job.
The indictment also says that someone believed to have ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran hacked Bolton’s personal email account and obtained confidential information, which Bolton used to share with his relatives.
The charges come nearly two months after FBI agents raided Mr. Bolton’s home and office in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 22 as part of a criminal investigation.
Two senior federal law enforcement officials told NBC News that Bolton turned himself in to authorities on Friday and is scheduled to appear in court later that day.
Mr. Bolton said he was innocent and that he was being targeted in a manner similar to the Soviet secret police under Stalin because of his open opposition to Mr. Trump.
His claims echo those made by former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after recent separate indictments in Virginia following calls from President Trump.
“These charges are not just focused on me and my diary, they are about a focused effort to intimidate an opponent so that he alone can decide what is said about his actions,” Bolton said of Trump, who was charged with storing classified documents after his first term in the White House.
President Trump told reporters at the White House that he had no knowledge that Bolton had been indicted.
“I’ve said it for the first time, but I think he’s a bad person,” Trump said. “He’s a bad guy. Too bad. But that’s the way things go, right? That’s the way things go.”
If convicted, Bolton could face up to 10 years in prison on each charge. However, federal sentencing guidelines would recommend a much lighter sentence.
FBI agents carry boxes out of the building that houses former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s Washington office in Washington, DC, on August 22, 2025.
Aaron Schwartz | Reuters
The indictment alleges that from 2018 to August 2025, Mr. Bolton shared more than 1,000 pages of his daily activities as National Security Advisor, including defense-related information classified to the Top Secret/SCI level, with two unauthorized individuals who are his relatives.
Neither of the two people, identified by MSNBC as Bolton’s wife and daughter, had security clearance, the indictment said.
“Bolton also illegally kept national defense documents, documents, and memos containing classified information up to the Top Secret/SCI level in his home,” the indictment states.
Bolton is accused of sending “diary-like entries” containing information classified as top secret to two relatives through non-governmental messaging applications such as AOL and Gmail.
According to the indictment, Bolton’s representatives told the FBI in July 2021 that cyber hackers believed to have ties to Iran hacked Bolton’s personal email account.
On July 25, 2021, Mr. Bolton received an email about the hack and threatened to notify the FBI.
“This may be the biggest scandal since Hillary’s emails were leaked, but this time it’s on the Republican side!” the email said, according to the indictment. “Please contact me before it’s too late.”
According to the indictment, the hackers “gave unauthorized access to classified and national defense information in the account that Mr. Bolton had previously emailed to Individuals 1 and 2 while he was National Security Advisor.” But Bolton never told the FBI that fact, according to the indictment.
“There is a hierarchy of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement regarding Bolton’s indictment.
“Anyone who abuses their position of power and endangers national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law,” Bondi said.
“The underlying facts of this case were investigated and resolved several years ago,” Bolton’s attorney Abby Rowell said in a statement.
“These charges stem from portions of Col. Bolton’s personal diary spanning his 45-year career. The records are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and were known to the FBI as far back as 2021,” Rowell said.
“Like many public servants throughout history, Ambassador Bolton kept a diary. That’s not a crime,” Lowell said. “We look forward to once again certifying that Ambassador Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
“For 40 years, I have dedicated my life to America’s foreign policy and national security, and I will never compromise those goals,” Bolton said in his statement.
“Trump’s retaliation against me began then, continued when he unsuccessfully tried to block the publication of my book ‘The Room Where It Happened’ before the 2020 election, and became one of his rallying cry in his re-election campaign. Now I am the latest target to weaponize the Department of Justice to indict those Trump considers his enemies on previously denied charges and misrepresentations of facts,” he said.
Bolton also said that “the FBI was fully aware” when his email was hacked.
Bolton said: “In the four years of the previous administration, after these reviews, there were never any charges filed. And then there was Trump 2, who embodies what Joseph Stalin’s secret police chief once said: ‘If you show me the man, I will show you the crime.'”
“Dissent and disagreement are fundamental to our constitutional system and critical to our freedoms,” Bolton said. “I look forward to the fight to defend my lawful conduct and expose his abuse of power.”
