[ April 10, 2026 ]
A Maryland federal grand jury indicted former National Security Advisor John Bolton on Thursday with 18 counts under the Espionage Act Counts, one of the most sweeping national security cases in years.
The treachery and betrayal in our own party is staggering.
Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton was charged Thursday with 18 counts of retention and transmission of national defense information, according to unsealed court documents.
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Bolton is accused of sharing more than 1,000 pages of information about government activities with relatives in diary-like notes.
John Bolton is in deep trouble. According to the federal indictment against him, he not only stored thousands of pages of classified documents at his home long after his government employment ended, he regularly shared classified info with multiple uncleared individuals via… pic.twitter.com/tszPGzqW2j
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 16, 2025
The indictment also alleges that the personal email account Bolton used to share the information was hacked by an entity believed to be associated with Iran.
Bolton served for 17 months as national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term, clashing with him over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea before being fired in 2019.
John Bolton used to go on TV every single day and accuse President Trump of mishandling classified information.
He has now been indicted for sending classified information over his personal email and keeping classified documents at his house. pic.twitter.com/8H4poGKKMA
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 16, 2025
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Jonathan Turley: Evidence against John Bolton is ‘damning’
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley discusses the case against former Trump national security advisor John Bolton, who is expected to surrender himself after being indicted on 18 charges.
John Bolton’s indictment is for more than just retaining classified documents — he also SHARED those classified documents using Google and AOL emails, per court docs.
The criminal case against John Bolton looks serious
Donald Trump’s estranged former adviser is accused of releasing classified material
American National Security Advisor John Bolton.
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Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton indicted
He’s the third prominent Trump adversary to face criminal charges in recent weeks, following former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.By Peter Alexander, Ryan J. Reilly, Victoria Ebner, Dareh Gregorian, Chloe Atkins and Michael Kosnar, NBC News, October 17, 2025:
A federal grand jury indicted former national security adviser John Bolton on Thursday, making him the third critic of President Donald Trump to face criminal charges in recent weeks.
Bolton was indicted in federal court in Maryland, where he lives and where prosecutors have been investigating whether he improperly retained classified materials after his acrimonious departure from the first Trump administration.
The indictment charges him with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information.
Asked about the indictment at a White House event Thursday, Trump said, “I didn’t know that,” and added, “He’s “a bad person.”
“I think he’s a bad guy, yeah, he’s a bad guy. Too bad, but that’s the way it goes,” Trump said.
The two other prominent Trump adversaries to face charges in recent weeks are former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement after Bolton was charged. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Bolton was charged after the bureau’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.”
Bolton denied any wrongdoing in a statement and said the indictment was politically motivated.
“Donald Trump’s retribution against me began then [during Trump’s first administration], continued when he tried unsuccessfully to block the publication of my book, The Room Where It Happened, before the 2020 election, and became one of his rallying cries in his re- election campaign,” Bolton said. “Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.”
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said Bolton, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration, did not break the law.
“The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago. These charges stem from portions of Amb. 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,” Lowell said in a statement.
“We look forward to proving once again that Amb. Bolton did not unlawfully share or store any information.”
Two senior federal law enforcement sources told NBC News that Bolton is expected to surrender to authorities on Friday and then make an initial court appearance later in the day.
Federal prosecutors and Bolton’s defense team have been hashing out details of the surrender since the indictment was announced late Thursday afternoon, the sources said.
Both sources say that they expect the surrender to take place in the morning and that once the U.S. marshals have Bolton in custody, a time will be set for his appearance before Judge Theodore D. Chuang.
The indictment alleges Bolton “abused his position” in the first Trump administration by “sharing more than a thousand pages of information about 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.”
Continued….The Truth Must be Told
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