Ex-Trump Aide Bolton Charged Over Classified Info

The 18-count indictment also alleges that classified information was exposed when agents believed to be affiliated with the Iranian regime hacked Bolton’s email account in 2021 and gained access to sensitive materials he shared. Prosecutors said a Bolton representative told the FBI that his emails had been hacked but did not disclose that he had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers now had government secrets.

The investigation into Bolton, who spent more than a year in President Donald Trump’s administration before being fired in 2019, exploded into public view in August when the FBI searched his Maryland home and Washington office for secret records he kept from his years in government.

The indictment sets the stage for a closely watched trial centering on a long-standing fixture in Republican foreign policy circles known for his hawkish views on American power and who later emerged as a prominent and vocal critic of Trump. While the investigation that led to the indictment is well underway under the Biden administration, the case will play out against the backdrop of broader concerns that Trump is arming the Justice Department to go after the president’s perceived enemies while shielding his allies from scrutiny.

“The facts underlying this case were investigated and resolved years ago. These charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton’s personal diaries throughout his 45-year career; records that were unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI until 2021,” Bolton attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement. “Like many public officials throughout history, Amb. Bolton kept a diary; this is not a crime. We look forward to proving once again that Amb. Bolton did not illegally share or withhold any information.”

The case follows separate indictments last month charging former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress and New York Attorney General Letitia James with bank fraud and perjury, which both have denied. Both cases were filed in federal court in Virginia by a prosecutor who was hastily appointed to the post after Trump was frustrated that investigations into high-profile foes had not resulted in prosecutions.

The Bolton case, by contrast, was filed by a U.S. attorney who served as a career prosecutor in the office before his appointment in Maryland.

The indictment is much more detailed than the Comey and James cases. For example, it alleges that Bolton shared more than 1,000 pages of information about daily activities with two unnamed family members and, in some cases, withheld and shared sensitive information about foreign adversaries that revealed details about the sources and methods the government used to gather intelligence.

Court documents say one document concerned a foreign adversary’s plans to launch missiles, while another detailed the U.S. government’s secret action plans and contained intelligence that blamed the enemy for an attack.

“There is one level of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. he said. “Anyone who abuses their power and endangers our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”

Questions about how Bolton handled classified information go back years. After leaving office, he faced a lawsuit and a Justice Department investigation over information contained in his 2020 book “The Room Where It Happened,” which portrayed Trump as deeply uninformed about foreign policy.

The Trump administration has argued that Bolton’s draft contains classified information that could harm national security if disclosed. Bolton’s lawyers said they made progress on the book after a White House National Security Council official with whom Bolton had been working for months said the draft no longer contained classified information.

A previously released search warrant affidavit said a National Security Council official reviewed a draft of the book and told Bolton in 2020 that the book appeared to contain a “significant amount” of classified information, some at a top-secret level.

Many of the documents seized in August were approved as part of a prepublication review of Bolton’s book, Lowell said. Many of them stem from Bolton’s long career at the State Department, spanning decades as deputy attorney general and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, he said.

Bolton also served at the Justice Department during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and was the State Department’s point man on arms control during George W. Bush’s presidency. Bolton was nominated by Bush to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations, but the strong supporter of the Iraq war failed to gain Senate confirmation and resigned after serving 17 months in Bush’s vacation post. This allowed him to hold the office temporarily without Senate confirmation.

Bolton was appointed in 2018 to serve as Trump’s third national security adviser. But his brief tenure was characterized by disagreements with the president over North Korea, Iran and Ukraine.

These rifts ultimately led to Bolton’s departure, and Trump announced on social media in September 2019 that he had accepted Bolton’s resignation. Bolton later criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government in his 2020 book; this includes claiming that Trump directly tied providing military aid to Ukraine to the country’s willingness to conduct investigations into Trump’s soon-to-be Democratic 2020 election rival, Joe Biden, and members of his family.

Trump responded by accusing Bolton of being a “worn-out man” and a “crazy” warmonger who could drag the country into “World War Six.” Trump also stated that the book contained “highly classified information” and that Bolton “did not have approval” to publish it. (AP)

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