OSLO/WASHINGTON DC: The US’s former security adviser John Bolton has been charged with breaking the law in connection with his handling of classified documents.
The short version
Table of Contents
- Former security adviser John Bolton has been charged with illegal handling of classified documents.
- He is said to have shared America’s secrets with family members. The FBI conducted several raids on his home and office.
- Bolton denies the allegations and claims the documents were out of date.
The summary is created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and quality assured by Aftenposten’s journalists.
A grand jury considered Bolton’s case in Maryland on Thursday. Bolton was a security adviser in Donald Trump’s first term and has since been a sharp critic of Trump.
He is the third high-profile Trump critic to be indicted in less than a month, according to CNN.
- You can read the indictment here.
Bolton is accused of sharing US secrets with two family members almost daily while he was an adviser to Trump. According to the indictment, he sent them 1,000 pages of documents in a group chat. Some of these were labeled strictly secret.
These were attached to a kind of diary from work. The two were not security cleared. After he no longer had his job, his private email was hacked by Iran. According to the indictment, he did not inform the FBI then that it contained classified documents.
– We are not talking about any of this
The indictment suggests that Bolton and his relatives understood that the information was classified. An example from July 2018 reads as follows:
“A few minutes later, Bolton sent Individuals 1 and 2 a 24-page document describing information Bolton received while serving as National Security Advisor.
Less than three hours later, he sent Individuals 1 and 2 a follow-up message that said ‘We’re not talking about any of this!!!’ In response, individual 1 sent a message declaring ‘Hush.’
Raid at his home
According to the indictment, Bolton had a so-called SCIF at home when he was an adviser to Trump. It is a room where you can legally store classified information and talk about the country’s secrets.
When he was out, the FBI came and got all the equipment and all the documents there.
In August this year, Bolton was subjected to several raids at his home and office in Washington DC
The indictment will be based on findings made during the raids, where documents marked as “secret” and “confidential” were seized.
«Sensitive sources and methods»
Examples of what the documents were about:
- “Gathering intelligence about a foreign adversary planning a future missile attack, a covert operation in a foreign country” and “methods to obtain human-based acquisition.”
- “Intelligence of an adversary’s plans to attack US forces in another country; human-acquired intelligence with sensitive sources and methods.”
Bolton denies the allegations
Bolton has denied the allegations entirely. He claims that the documents he had in his home were out of date and that he has not acted negligently.
Trump has denied that he in any way initiated the raid. Trump has said that he also had no prior knowledge of what happened in August.
The raids were approved by federal judges in Maryland and Washington DC They were carried out by the FBI under the direction of Director Kash Patel, who was appointed by Trump.
Relations between Trump and Bolton have been strained since Bolton left the Trump administration in 2019 following disagreements over foreign policy.
Perhaps Trump’s harshest critic
Later, Bolton has become one of Trump’s strongest critics.
Bolton later criticized Trump in his book “The Room Where It Happened”, where he claimed that Trump was not fit to be president.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his displeasure with Bolton. After Trump was re-elected in 2024, he revoked Bolton’s security clearance and removed his Secret Service protection. This despite the fact that Bolton is said to have received threats from the Iranian side.
Politically motivated prosecution?
Donald Trump’s government is criticized by many. They believe he is pressuring the FBI and the Ministry of Justice to conduct politically motivated prosecutions.
It was also a key point when Minister of Justice Pam Bondi met in a hearing in Congress earlier this month. There, the Democrats accused Bondi of undermining the department’s traditional independence from the White House.
– What has happened since January 20, 2025 would have made even President Nixon react with disgust, said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, referring to the president who resigned to avoid impeachment after the Watergate scandal, writes NTB.