Former Trump advisor indicted over handling of classified material

Those raids sought evidence of possible violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes the removal, retention or transmission of national defense records, according to partially open search warrants filed in federal court.

At Bolton’s home in Maryland, agents seized two cellphones, documents in folders labeled “Trump I-IV” and a file labeled “Statements and thoughts regarding Allied Attacks,” according to court documents.

They also found records labeled “classified,” including documents referring to weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. mission to the United Nations and other materials related to the U.S. government’s strategic communications at its office in Washington, D.C., according to court records.

Court records also show a foreign entity hacked Bolton’s email account, though details about the hack have been redacted. Bolton’s attorney has previously said the records the FBI seized were ordinary documents a former government official might have.

Trump himself was previously charged with Espionage Act violations for allegedly moving classified recordings to his home in Florida after leaving the White House in 2021 and refusing the government’s repeated requests to return them. Trump had pleaded not guilty and the case was dropped after he was re-elected in November 2024.

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The Bolton indictment sets the stage for a closely watched trial centering on a long-running fixture in Republican foreign policy circles who is known for his hawkish views on American power and has emerged as a prominent and vocal critic of the president after leaving Trump’s first administration.

While the investigation leading to the indictment is ongoing during the Biden administration and began well before Trump’s second term, the case will unfold against the backdrop of broader concerns that the Justice Department is being weaponized to go after political rivals.

During the search in August, agents seized numerous documents from Bolton’s office labeled “confidential,” “confidential” and “confidential,” according to previously unsealed court filings. In the applications, it was stated that some of the seized records were related to weapons of mass destruction, national “strategic communications” and the US mission to the United Nations.

The charges follow separate indictments last month accusing former FBI director James Comey of lying to Congress and New York Attorney General Letitia James of bank fraud and making false statements, which both have denied.

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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 in Maryland by an attorney who served as a career prosecutor in the office before being elevated to the position.

Questions about how Bolton handled classified information go back years. He faced a lawsuit and a Department of Justice investigation regarding information in his book, which he published in 2020 after leaving office: The Room Where the Incident Happened – Portraying Trump as grossly ignorant 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 sealed search warrant affidavit said a National Security Council official reviewed a draft of the book and told Bolton in 2020 that the book contained a “significant amount” of classified information, some at a top-secret level.

Lowell, Bolton’s attorney, said most of the documents seized in August were approved as part of a prepublication review of Bolton’s book. 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.

The indictment is a dramatic moment in Bolton’s long career in government. He served at the Justice Department during 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.

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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 disagreements ultimately led to his departure in September 2019, with Trump announcing on social media that he had told Bolton that his “services were no longer needed in the White House.”

Bolton later criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government in his 2020 book; This includes Trump’s claim that he directly linked providing military aid 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 said at the time that the book contained “highly classified information” and that Bolton “did not have approval” to publish it.