Bolton pleads not guilty in Justice Department case accusing him of
sharing government secrets
[October 18, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — John Bolton pleaded not guilty Friday to charges
accusing the former Trump national security adviser turned critic of
emailing classified information to family members and keeping top secret
documents at his Maryland home.
Bolton was ordered released from custody after making his appearance
before a judge in the third Justice Department case brought in recent
weeks against an adversary of President Donald Trump.
The case accusing Bolton of putting the country’s national security at
risk is unfolding against the backdrop of growing concerns that the
Trump administration is using the law enforcement powers of the Justice
Department to pursue his political foes. Bolton has signaled he will
argue he is being targeted because of his criticism of the president,
describing the charges as part of a Trump "effort to intimidate his
opponents.”
The investigation into Bolton, however, was already well underway by the
time Trump took office a second time this past January and appears to
have followed a more conventional path toward indictment than other
recent cases against perceived Trump foes, who were charged by the
president's hand-picked U.S. attorney in Virginia over the concerns of
career prosecutors.
Bolton is accused of sharing with his wife and daughter more than 1,000
pages of notes that included sensitive information he had gleaned from
meetings with other U.S. government officials and foreign leaders or
from intelligence briefings. Authorities say some of the information was
exposed when operatives believed to be linked to the Iranian government
hacked Bolton’s email account he used to send diary-like notes about his
activities to his relatives.
The Justice Department also alleges Bolton stored at his home highly
classified intelligence about a foreign adversary’s plans to attack U.S.
forces overseas, covert action taken by the U.S. government and other
state secrets.
“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” Attorney General Pam
Bondi said in a statement Thursday. “Anyone who abuses a position of
power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No
one is above the law.”
Bolton, 76, is a longtime fixture in Republican foreign policy circles
who became known for his hawkish views on American power and who served
for more than a year in Trump’s first administration before being fired
in 2019. He later published a book highly critical of Trump.
The indictment is significantly more detailed in its allegations than
earlier cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York
Attorney General Letitia James. Unlike in those cases filed by a hastily
appointed U.S. attorney, Bolton’s indictment was signed by career
national security prosecutors.
Case centers on top secret national security information
Bolton suggested the criminal case was an outgrowth of an unsuccessful
Justice Department effort after he left government to block the
publication of his 2020 book “The Room Where It Happened,” which
portrayed Trump as grossly misinformed about foreign policy.
Bolton’s lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White
House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked
for months, said the manuscript no longer had classified information.
Authorities say Bolton took meticulous notes about his meetings and
briefings as national security adviser and then used a personal email
account and messaging platform to share information classified as high
as top secret with his family members. After sending one document,
Bolton wrote in a message to his relatives, “None of which we talk
about!!!” In response, one of his relatives wrote, “Shhhhh,” prosecutors
said.
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Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton,
left, arrives for his arraignment at the federal courthouse in
Greenbelt, Md., Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
The two family members were not identified in court papers, but a
person familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity
to discuss nonpublic details, identified them as Bolton’s wife and
daughter.
A Bolton representative told the FBI in July 2021 that his email
account had been hacked by operatives believed to be linked to the
Iranian government but did not reveal he had shared classified
information through the account or that the hackers now had
possession of government secrets, according to the indictment.
Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that the
“underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years
ago.”
He said the charges stem from portions of Bolton’s personal diaries
over his 45-year career in government and included unclassified
information that was shared only with his immediate family and was
known to the FBI as far back as 2021.
“Like many public officials throughout history,” Lowell said,
“Bolton kept diaries — that is not a crime.” He said Bolton “did not
unlawfully share or store any information.”
Justice Department has long history of classified documents cases
The Justice Department has a long history of investigations into the
mishandling of classified information, including by public
officials. The outcomes of those investigations have turned in part
on whether officials developed evidence of willful mishandling or
other crimes such as obstruction.
Trump, for instance, was charged not only with hoarding classified
documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate but also with obstructing
government efforts to get them back. Special counsel Jack Smith
dropped the case after Trump was elected last November, citing
Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Prosecutors in a separate investigation found evidence that
President Joe Biden had willfully retained and shared classified
information when he a private citizen but opted against charges in
part because they thought Biden might come across to a jury as
“sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Another high-profile investigation concerned 2016 Democratic
presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who was spared charges after
then-FBI Director James Comey said investigators did not determine
that she intended to break the law when she sent emails containing
classified information on a private email server while serving as
Secretary of State.
One investigation that may carry parallels to the Bolton case is the
prosecution of former CIA Director David Petraeus, who in 2015
admitted to sharing classified information with his biographer while
she was working on the book. He was sentenced to probation following
a plea agreement with the Justice Department.
___
Durkin Richer reported from Washington.
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