Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton charged with mishandling secret documents
The FBI has accused the former official of transmitting classified information using personal online accounts
John Bolton, former national security adviser to US President Donald Trump, arrives as FBI agents search his home on August 22, 2025, in Bethesda, Maryland. © Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
Former US National Security Adviser John Bolton has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified information.
A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted Bolton on Thursday on eight counts of transmitting and ten counts of unlawfully retaining national defense information.
“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,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Anyone who threatens our national security will be held accountable,” he added.
According to the Justice Department, the documents contained intelligence on “future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations,” as well as information about informants and “intelligence on an adversary’s leaders.”
Federal agents searched Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, and his office in Washington, DC, earlier this summer. Prosecutors alleged that he retained classified records even after the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at his residence was decommissioned following his departure from Donald Trump’s first cabinet in September 2019.
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Bolton served as US ambassador to the UN during George W. Bush’s presidency and as national security adviser between 2018 and 2019 during Trump’s first term in office.
Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, denied that her client broke the law. “These charges stem from portions of Ambassador 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.
The former diplomat has become increasingly critical of Trump in recent years, arguing that he is unfit to be president. Trump has called Bolton a “whack job” and “one of the dumbest people in government.”