Donald Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton just became the third high-profile political enemy of the US president to be indicted in less than a month. The aide-turned-adversary could now face decades in prison.
The 76-year-old Republican shared “more than a thousand pages” of “diary-like entries” believed to be containing “information classified up to the TOP SECRET” level, according to the indictment. Charges against him announced Thursday (US time) followed a criminal investigation that kicked off in 2022 after Iran hacked emails of the POTUS’ vocal critic.
John Bolton indictment – Charges revealed
The 26-page indictment filed at a Greenbelt court in Maryland revealed that John Bolton had been charged with 8 counts of transmission of national defence information (NDI) and 10 counts of unlawful retention of the NDI. Court papers showed that the documents in question held crucial intelligence about future attack, foreign adversaries and foreign-policy relations.
If the federal case flips against his favour, the former Trump aide could face up to 10 years in prison for each charge.
John Bolton allegations explained
According to FBI Director Kash Patel, “The FBI’s investigation revealed that John Bolton allegedly transmitted top secret information using personal online accounts and retained said documents in his house in direct violation of federal law.”
Accusations listed in the indictment suggest that Bolton penned notes based on his day at the White House and other such official engagements, and then rewrote them on his personal computer.
Prosecutors argued that the said entries were eventually also printed as they stayed on the personal devices used Bolton and others at his residence. As per CNN, the former George W Bush UN ambassador is said to have shared the NDI with his wife and daughter.
The indictment further states the former Trump advisor “used his personal non-governmental email accounts, such as email accounts hosted by AOL and Google, to email information classified” to the individual’s personal email accounts.
The alleged notes reportedly mentioned details of the “secure setting or environment” where he found out about the information tied to national defence and other classified secrets.
John Bolton breaks silence after indictment
Having been fired from the first Trump admin in 2019, “The Room Where It Happened” ( a book Trump’s first DOJ sought to block) author, described himself as the “latest target in weaponising the Justice Department to charge those he [Trump] deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.”
Addressing the content of his memoir, he asserted that it was approved by the “the appropriate, experienced career clearance officials,” in addition to his email hack being reported to the FBI in 2021.
Noting that no charges were filed against him during the four years of the Biden admin, Bolton said, “These charges are not just about his focus on me or my diaries, but his intensive effort to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct.”
Meanwhile, his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, insisted, “Like many public officials throughout history… Bolton kept diaries – that is not a crime.” He added, the records were “unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021.”
John Bolton is expected to surrender to authorities on Friday. His indictment comes after James Comey was charged in September and New York City Attorney General Letitia James was indicted in October.