From the Associated Press: Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton was charged Thursday in a federal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The investigation into Bolton, who served for more than a year in President Donald Trump’s first administration before being fired in 2019, burst into public view in August when the FBI searched his home in Maryland and his office in Washington for classified records he may have held onto from his years in government.
The existence of the indictment was confirmed to the AP by a person familiar with the matter who could not publicly discuss the charges and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Agents during the August search seized multiple documents labeled “classified,” “confidential” and “secret” from Bolton’s office, according to previously unsealed court filings. Some of the seized records appeared to concern weapons of mass destruction, national “strategic communication” and the U.S. mission to the United Nations, the filings stated.
Bolton is accused of sending sensitive national security documents through a personal AOL email account. The AOL account was allegedly later hacked, leading to even more concerns.
The first Trump administration had opened an investigation in 2020 about “Bolton’s alleged use of a private email to send classified national security documents to his wife and daughter from his work desk before his dismissal by Trump in September 2019.”
The Biden administration closed the investigation in 2021, but the new Trump administration has reopened it.
Bolton, 76, briefly served as Trump’s national security advisor in the first Trump administration, from April 2018 until Trump fired him on September 10, 2019. He later turned into a staunch Trump critic, and has written a “tell-all” book, titled, “The Room Where It Happened.”
The Justice Department just posted the following announcement in a press release:
A federal grand jury returned an indictment today charging former National Security Advisor John Bolton, 76, of Bethesda, Maryland, with serious crimes related to the mishandling of classified information. The indictment charges Bolton with eight counts of transmission of national defense information (NDI) and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI.
The indictment alleges that Bolton illegally transmitted NDI by using personal email and messaging application accounts to send sensitive documents classified as high as Top Secret. These documents revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations.
The indictment also alleges that Bolton illegally retained NDI documents within his home. These documents included intelligence on an adversary’s leaders as well as information revealing sources and collections used to obtain statements on a foreign adversary.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count of unlawful retention of NDI and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count of transmission of NDI. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Justice Department Statements Regarding Indictment of Former National Security Advisor John Bolton https://t.co/lrNzDZqzvi @FBIBaltimore pic.twitter.com/yLcEqSjkLF
— FBI (@FBI) October 16, 2025
ABOUT THE JUDGE:
The judge who has been randomly assigned to Bolton’s case is Judge Theodore David Chuang, 55, who was born in 1969 in Pennsylvania, to parents who are immigrants from Taiwan.
Chuang was nominated in September 2013 by then-president Barack Obama to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in May 2014.
In March 2025, Chuang ruled against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), claiming it was likely unconstitutional.
Days later, Chuang’s ruling was struck down by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, allowing Musk and his team to continue dismantling USAID.
NOW: A criminal case has appeared in MD federal court against ex-NatSec adviser John Bolton.
No charges listed yet. Lead prosecutor is Thomas Sullivan, chief of the national security section in Maryland’s US atty’s office.
Judge Chuang, an Obama appointee, randomly assigned: pic.twitter.com/qhEk2VOljC
— Ella Lee (@ByEllaLee) October 16, 2025
BREAKING: Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has been indicted by a grand jury, according to CNN.
“It’s about John Bolton’s use of an email account with AOL, an email account where he was writing diary-like notes…”
“At times, even sending them to his… pic.twitter.com/zCKIGZ8unj
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 16, 2025
President Donald Trump was told about the indictment against Bolton during an Oval Office announcement Thursday afternoon.
🚨 BREAKING: “John Bolton was just indicted by a grand jury. Do you have a reaction to that?”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I didn’t know that. You’re telling me for the first time! I think he’s a bad person. Too bad.”
“That’s the WAY IT GOES, RIGHT?” 😂
“He’s a BAD person.” 🔥 pic.twitter.com/QDH4TPFttA
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 16, 2025
READ MORE from the Associated Press.
BREAKING: Ex-Trump national security adviser John Bolton charged in probe into mishandling classified information, AP source says. https://t.co/jIqxLRPvd9
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 16, 2025
Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter.)
The DML News App: www.X.com/DMLNewsApp
