WASHINGTON (AP) — John Bolton is expected to surrender to authorities on Friday following an 18-count federal indictment for mishandling classified information. The indictment accuses the former Trump administration national security adviser of storing top-secret records at his home and sharing diary-like entries containing classified details with family members.
The indictment also reveals that Bolton's email account may have been hacked by operatives linked to the Iranian government, compromising sensitive material. In 2021, Bolton's representative informed the FBI about the email hack but failed to disclose that classified information had been shared through that account.
Bolton has been involved in Republican foreign policy for decades and served in Trump's first administration for over a year before his dismissal in 2019. He later published a book criticizing Trump, which raised questions about its classified content.
The case unfolds amid concerns that the Justice Department appears to be challenging Trump’s political adversaries while sparing his allies from similar scrutiny. Bolton characterized the indictment as part of a politically motivated effort to weaponize the Justice Department against individuals opposing Trump.
The indictment is significant in its detail, suggesting that Bolton shared over 1,000 pages of classified information with family members—a violation of protocols surrounding classified materials. Bolton's legal team argues that the information shared was unclassified and known to the FBI years earlier.
Amidst this controversy, Bolton's fate raises questions about the integrity of information handling within government circles and the implications of political maneuvering in legal processes. Bolton's tenure as national security adviser included notable disagreements with Trump over key foreign policy issues, steering clear from aligning too closely with the former president on controversial matters.
