Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton Indicted for Illegal Possession of Classified Information
by Zachary Steiner and Sam Dorman, The Epoch Times.com, October 16, 2025
John Bolton, who served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser during the president’s first term, was indicted on Oct. 16 for alleged unauthorized sharing and retention of classified information.
“From on or about April 9, 2018, through at least on or about August 22, 2025, Bolton abused his position as National Security Advisor 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,” federal prosecutors allege in the indictment.
Bolton’s attorney Abbe Lowell told The Associated Press: “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.
“Like many public officials throughout history, [Ambassador] Bolton kept diaries—that is not a crime.”
Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, became Trump’s national security adviser in 2018. Trump fired Bolton in 2019, and they have criticized each other in the intervening years.
Trump responded to news of the indictment from the White House.
“I didn’t know that,” he told reporters. Trump said he had not reviewed the case against Bolton. “You’re telling me for the first time, but I think he’s a bad person,“ he said. ”It’s too bad, but that’s the way it goes.”
The indictment focused on two unnamed individuals with whom Bolton allegedly shared sensitive information. Both of those individuals were related to Bolton, according to the indictment.
During his time as national security adviser, Bolton allegedly sent them “diary-like entries” on a regular basis that “contained information classified up to a ‘TOP SECRET/SCI’ level.”
The 18 counts against Bolton fall under two categories: the retention and the transmission of national defense information.
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The documents involved contained intelligence, including foreign countries’ intelligence and information about covert action conducted by the U.S. government.
For example, the indictment offers this description for one of the documents containing Top Secret information: “Reveals intelligence that a foreign adversary was planning a missile launch in the future; a covert action in a foreign country that is related to sensitive inter-governmental actions; sensitive sources and methods used to collect human intelligence.”
Another document, which was allegedly retained by Bolton, was described this way: “Reveals sources and collection used to obtain statements of a foreign adversary; covert action conducted by the U.S. Government in a foreign country.”
As national security adviser, Bolton had a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility within his home that was approved for processing and storage of classified information. But “at no point,” the indictment reads, was he “authorized to store or transmit classified information on unclassified systems.”
Bolton allegedly used his personal nongovernmental email accounts to email top secret information.
“At no point did Bolton have authorization to store or transmit the classified information that he sent to Individuals 1 and 2 via his personal electronic devices and accounts,” the indictment reads. “Nor did, at any time, Individuals 1 or 2 have authorization to know or store the classified information that Bolton gave to them.”
The charges were filed after authorities recovered documents and other items during a search of Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington. The search was to look for “evidence of a crime,” according to court documents.“The materials taken from [Ambassador] Bolton’s home are the ordinary records of a 40-year career serving this country,” Lowell previously told news outlets in a statement.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Bolton directly violated federal law
“The case was based on meticulous work from dedicated career professionals at the FBI who followed the facts without fear or favor,” Patel said in a statement posted to X.“Weaponization of justices will not be tolerated, and the FBI will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone who threatens our national security.”
