Breaking: Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton Indicted on Charges of Mishandling Classified Information

Washington, D.C. – October 16, 2025  In a stunning escalation of the Justice Department's crackdown on Trump's perceived political adversaries, former National Security Adviser John Bolton has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland on multiple counts related to the unlawful transmission and retention of classified documents, sources confirmed to CNN Thursday afternoon.

The 18-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, accuses Bolton of eight violations of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of retaining such material in violation of the Espionage Act. Prosecutors allege that Bolton shared more than a thousand pages of "diary-like entries" from his tenure in the Trump White House—some containing information classified up to the TOP SECRET level—with unauthorized recipients, including his wife and daughter via personal email accounts.

"It's about John Bolton's use of an email account with AOL, an email account where he was writing diary-like notes," one source familiar with the investigation told CNN. "At times, even sending them to his wife and daughter."

The charges stem from a long-running probe into Bolton's handling of sensitive materials during his 2018-2019 stint as Trump's national security chief. According to court documents, Bolton allegedly used non-governmental email services, including AOL and Google-hosted accounts, to draft summaries of high-level meetings and activities—entries that prosecutors say doubled as personal journals but inadvertently captured classified details on topics ranging from weapons of mass destruction to foreign policy deliberations.

Federal authorities heightened their scrutiny this summer when FBI agents raided Bolton's Bethesda, Maryland, home and Washington, D.C., office on August 22. The searches yielded a cache of seized documents marked "secret," "confidential," and "classified," including materials related to international security threats. A redacted search warrant affidavit highlighted a separate concern: Bolton's AOL account had been hacked years earlier by a foreign adversary, with U.S. intelligence pointing to Iran as the prime suspect. This breach, detailed in a U.S. intelligence assessment, reportedly factored into the decision to pursue criminal charges.

Bolton, 76, is expected to surrender to authorities as early as Friday and make his initial court appearance in Greenbelt. Neither Bolton nor his legal team immediately responded to requests for comment. In a brief statement to reporters outside the White House, President Donald Trump—whose acrimonious split with Bolton dates back to Bolton's 2020 tell-all book The Room Where It Happened—dismissed his former aide as "a bad guy" who "always put himself first."

This indictment marks the third high-profile legal salvo against Trump's critics in less than a month. Just weeks ago, a Virginia grand jury charged former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress, while New York Attorney General Letitia James faces separate allegations of mortgage-related bank fraud tied to a Virginia property. Critics, including Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties groups, have decried the flurry of cases as a "retribution campaign" orchestrated by a vengeful administration, though Justice Department officials insist the probes are driven by evidence, not politics.Bolton's fall from grace is particularly ironic given his hawkish legacy. Once a staunch Trump loyalist who championed aggressive foreign policies—from withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal to confronting North Korea—Bolton became a vocal critic after his abrupt 2019 firing. His memoir, which revealed behind-the-scenes chaos in the Oval Office, sparked its own classified information controversy, though the current charges appear to focus more squarely on his email practices during his White House service.

Legal experts anticipate a protracted battle. "Espionage Act cases are notoriously complex, especially when intent is at issue," said national security attorney Mark Zaid. "Bolton will likely argue these were personal notes, not deliberate leaks—but the volume of material and the family transmissions could make that a tough sell."

As the nation grapples with this latest chapter in America's polarized political saga, the Bolton case underscores deepening fault lines in the intelligence community's safeguards. Stay tuned for updates as arraignment proceedings unfold.

17GEN4.com