John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who has since become one of the US president’s biggest Republican critics, surrendered to authorities on Friday to face criminal charges that he mishandled classified information.
The justice department filed federal charges against Bolton in federal court in Maryland on Thursday, accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act.
Bolton has been charged with sending diary entries to two unnamed individuals about his day-to-day activities when he was national security adviser, many of which contained highly classified information.
The indictment marked the third time in recent weeks the justice department has secured criminal charges against one of Trump’s critics.
In response to a question about the charges, Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was not aware of them but that Bolton was a “bad guy”.
Accused of mishandling classified material, John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump and now one of the most vocal Republican opponents of the US president, turned himself in to police on Friday. Later that day, he was scheduled to appear in court for the first time.
On Thursday, the justice department accused Bolton of using the Espionage Act to transmit and retain highly classified information, and filed federal charges against him in a federal court in Maryland.
A grand jury in federal district court in Maryland handed up the 18-count indictment on Thursday. Bolton has been accused of sending two anonymous people diary entries detailing his daily activities while serving as national security adviser, many of which included extremely classified material.
The indictment was the third time in recent weeks that one of Trump’s detractors has been charged with a crime by the justice department.
Regarding the charges, Trump told reporters on Thursday that Bolton was a “bad guy” but that he was unaware of them.
During the Biden administration, the criminal investigation accelerated due to revelations that alarmed the US intelligence community, even though Bolton left the White House on bad terms.
Espionage Act cases are pursued by the Justice Department when there are “aggregating factors,” such as deliberate mishandling of classified material, large amounts of classified material to bolster an inference of wrongdoing, betrayal of the United States, and obstruction.
Bolton kept thorough notes of all of his daily meetings, activities, and briefings. According to the indictment, Bolton frequently handwrote these notes on yellow notepads during the course of his day at the White House complex or in other secure locations. He then rewrote his notes in a word processing document.
Bolton’s daily activities as the National Security Advisor were detailed in the notes he sent to Individuals 1 and 2 via his personal, non-governmental email accounts and messaging app. Often, Bolton’s notes described the secure setting or environment in which he learned the national defense and classified information that he was memorializing in his notes. “”.
Bolton said in a statement: “I am eager to fight to defend my legal actions and to expose [Trump’s] abuse of power.”. “.”.
Abbe Lowell, Bolton’s attorney, claimed that his client had not committed any wrongdoing.
“These charges are based on parts of Ambassador Bolton’s personal diaries during his 45-year career – unclassified records that are known to the FBI as early as 2021 and shared only with his immediate family,” Lowell said in a statement. The fact that Ambassador Bolton kept a diary, like many other public figures throughout history, is not illegal. “.”.
During and after his tenure as national security adviser, Bolton shared notes and diary entries containing classified information with two individuals without security clearances using personal email accounts and a group chat, according to the indictment.
“Bolton left the messaging chat group with Individuals 1 and 2 on or about September 24, 2019, fourteen days after he was no longer employed as the National Security Advisor, in which he sent them over a thousand pages of notes commemorating his tenure as National Security Advisor,” the indictment stated.
In a memoir published last year, Bolton characterized Trump as unfit to serve as president.
Prior to the second Trump administration, in 2022, during Joe Biden’s administration, the investigation into him was launched. An individual with knowledge of the case says that the justice department views it as distinct and more compelling than the recent prosecutions of former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Reporting contributed by Reuters.
