Bolton pleads not guilty in Justice Department case accusing him of sharing government secrets
It was decided to release Bolton after he appeared before the judge in the third Justice Department case filed against an opponent of President Donald Trump in recent weeks.
The case, which accuses Bolton of risking the nation’s national security, unfolds amid growing concerns that the Trump administration is using the Justice Department’s law enforcement powers to pursue political enemies. Bolton signaled he would claim he was targeted for his criticism of the president, calling the accusations part of Trump’s “effort to intimidate his opponents.”
But the investigation into Bolton was already well under way by the time Trump took office for a second term last January, and appears to have taken a more traditional path to indictment than other cases against perceived Trump enemies, who were indicted by the president’s hand-picked U.S. attorney in Virginia over concerns of career prosecutors.
Bolton is accused of sharing more than 1,000 pages of notes with his wife and daughter containing sensitive information gleaned from meetings or intelligence briefings with other U.S. government officials and foreign leaders. Authorities say some of the information was revealed when agents believed to be affiliated with the Iranian government hacked the email account Bolton used to send diary-like notes about his activities to relatives.
The Justice Department also alleges that Bolton stored highly classified intelligence at his home about a foreign adversary’s plans to attack U.S. forces overseas, covert actions taken by the U.S. government, and other state secrets. “There is one level of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday. he said. “Anyone who abuses their position of power and endangers our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.” Bolton, 76, is a longtime figure in Republican foreign policy circles who is known for his hawkish views on American power and served for more than a year in Trump’s first administration before being fired in 2019. He later published a book that was highly critical of Trump.
The indictment’s allegations are much more detailed than previous cases filed against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Unlike cases filed by a hastily appointed U.S. attorney, Bolton’s indictment was signed by career national security prosecutors.
Case focuses on top-secret national security information
Bolton suggested the criminal case was the result of a failed effort by the Justice Department after he left the government to block the publication of his 2020 book, “The Room Where It Happened,” which portrayed Trump as grossly misinformed about foreign policy.
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.
Bolton took meticulous notes about his meetings and briefings as national security adviser and then shared information classified as top secret with family members using a personal email account and messaging platform, officials said. After sending a document, Bolton wrote a message to his relatives: “We are not talking about any of it!!!” In response, one of the relatives wrote “Shhh,” prosecutors said.
The two family members were not identified in court documents, but a person familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not made public said they were Bolton’s wife and daughter.
According to the indictment, a Bolton representative told the FBI in July 2021 that his email account was hacked by agents believed to be affiliated with the Iranian government, but did not disclose that he had shared classified information through the account or that the hackers now had government secrets.
Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that “the facts underlying this case were investigated and resolved years ago.”
He said the charges stemmed from portions of Bolton’s personal diaries throughout his 45-year career in the government and contained declassified information shared only with his immediate family and known to the FBI until 2021.
“Like many public officials throughout history, Bolton kept a diary, which is not a crime,” Lowell said. He said Bolton “did not illegally share or withhold any information.”
The Justice Department has a long history of classified documents cases
The Department of Justice has a long history of investigating the mishandling of classified information, including by public officials. The results of these investigations depend in part on whether authorities develop evidence of other crimes, such as intentional mistreatment or obstruction.
Trump, for example, has been accused of not only hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion but also obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. Special counsel Jack Smith dropped the case, citing the Justice Department’s policy of prosecuting sitting presidents after Trump’s election last November.
In a separate investigation, prosecutors found evidence that President Joe Biden knowingly withheld and shared classified information while a private citizen, but dismissed the charges in part because they thought Biden might appear before a jury as a “sympathetic, well-intentioned old man with poor memory.”
Another high-profile investigation involved 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who escaped charges after then-FBI Director James Comey said investigators did not determine that she intended to violate the law when she sent emails containing classified information through a private email server while serving as Secretary of State.
One investigation that may be similar to the Bolton case is the trial of former CIA Director David Petraeus, who admitted in 2015 that he shared classified information with his biographer while working on the book. He was sentenced to probation after a plea agreement with the Department of Justice.
