Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton indicted on charges of mishandling classified information | John Bolton

The justice department has filed federal charges against former national security adviser John Bolton, who has become one of Donald Trump’s biggest critics, accusing him of transmitting and withholding highly classified information under the Espionage Act.

The 18-count indictment was handed down Thursday by a grand jury in federal district court in Maryland. Bolton was accused of sending diary entries to two unnamed individuals about his daily activities while he was national security adviser, much of which contained highly classified information.

In response to a question about the accusations, Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was unaware of them but that Bolton was a “bad guy.”

While Bolton left the White House on bad terms, the criminal investigation gained momentum following revelations that disturbed the US intelligence community during the Biden administration.

The justice department is pursuing Espionage Act cases in cases of so-called “additive factors”: intentional misuse of classified information, large amounts of classified information to support an inference of wrongdoing, disloyalty to the United States, and obstruction.

“BOLTON took detailed notes documenting his daily meetings, activities, and briefings. BOLTON frequently hand-wrote these notes on yellow legal pads throughout the day at the White House complex or other secure locations and later retyped his notes in a word processing document,” the indictment states.

“BOLTON’s notes to Individuals 1 and 2, using his nongovernmental email accounts and messaging account, described in detail BOLTON’s daily activities as National Security Advisor. BOLTON’s notes generally described the secure environment or environment in which he learned the national defense and classified information he referred to in his notes.”

Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that his client did not commit a crime.

“These charges stem from portions of Ambassador Bolton’s personal diaries throughout his 45-year career, records that were not classified, were shared only with his immediate family, and were known to the FBI until 2021,” Lowell said. “Like many public officials throughout history, Ambassador Bolton kept a diary; this is not a crime.”

The indictment stated that Bolton used personal email accounts and a group chat that existed during and after his time as national security advisor to share notes and diary entries containing classified information with two people who did not have security clearances.

“On or about September 24, 2019, fourteen days after he was no longer assigned as National Security Advisor, BOLTON left the messaging chat group with Persons 1 and 2, whom he used to send over a thousand pages of notes commemorating his time as National Security Advisor,” the indictment said.

In August, FBI agents searched Bolton’s home in Maryland and his office in Washington. They took boxes of papers, computer files and other supplies. Court filings in the case later showed that some of these materials had low-grade classification markings.

The emails and notes were sent by Bolton in an attempt to recapitulate his time as national security adviser in his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened; This angered Trump officials because of his critical view of behind-the-scenes management.

Shortly before the book was published, the management filed a lawsuit to postpone the publication of the book, citing the classification review. The justice department also opened a criminal investigation into whether Bolton mishandled classified information by revealing some details in the book.