Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, was today charged with misuse of confidential information, after the US President defined him as a prosecutor’s target, local media reported.
John Bolton, 76, was indicted by a grand jury in Maryland, near Washington, DC, becoming the third Trump opponent to face legal charges, after former FIB director James Comey and prosecutor Letitia James.
According to CBS, Bolton faces 18 criminal charges, including eight counts of transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of withholding national defense information.
The indictment alleges that the former adviser in Trump’s first term “abused his position (…) by sharing with two unidentified family members more than a thousand pages of information about his daily activities”, including information classified top secret.
In August, an FBI raid targeted John Bolton’s home and office for suspected violations of the Espionage Act, according to court documents.
The indictment states that Bolton sent the two people “diary-like entries” using non-governmental email, including “email accounts hosted by AOL and Google,” to send confidential information up to the top secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information level.
He will also have many of these entries printed and stored at his home in Maryland, the prosecutor’s document states.
Between 2019 and 2021, according to the indictment, Bolton’s email account was hacked by a “cyber agent” believed to be linked to Iran.
The indictment alleges that Bolton reported the cyberattack to federal authorities, but did not specify that there was confidential information in his account, or that he had shared it with two family members, CBS said.
Questioned at the White House by journalists about Bolton’s accusation, Trump said he was not aware of it, but said his former adviser “is a bad guy.”
Last week, after pressure from Trump, New York Attorney General Letitia James was charged with mortgage fraud by federal prosecutors.
“We will vigorously combat these unfounded accusations (…) And I will continue to do my job,” said the attorney general, whose prosecution had been publicly requested by Trump from Attorney General Pam Bondi.
According to the American channel CNN, Letitia James had been under investigation since May over a 2023 mortgage she took out to help her niece buy a house in Norfolk, Virginia.
James’ lawyers admit an error in filling out a document, but claim that it was corrected in a timely manner and that there is no minimum support for the accusation, according to the same source.
James won a civil case for fraud in 2024 in New York against Trump, his adult children and his real estate company, with the trial being marked by heated exchanges of words between the then Republican presidential candidate and the New York prosecutor.
Before the prosecutor, former FBI director James Comey was charged with obstruction of justice and perjury by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia.
The accusation stems from Comey’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020 about the FBI investigation into links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
The Department of Justice also opened an investigation into California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, who promoted the process of presidential impeachment by Congress, after the assault on the Capitol in January 2021, of the now re-elected President.
The various defendants were mentioned in a message from Trump to the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, referring to his opponents seeking legal investigation, which the President himself published by accident on social media, according to various media reports.
Later deleted, the long September 20 post was a private message to Bondi, expressing dissatisfaction at not seeing any concrete legal action against his political rivals, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Referring to the fact that he himself had been accused and subjected to impeachment proceedings several times, Trump demanded “justice, now!”.
Trump also stated that he would nominate White House Counsel Lindsey Halligan to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, replacing Erik Seibert, who believed he had not gathered enough evidence to support criminal charges against Letitia James, after interviewing dozens of witnesses.
With no experience as a federal prosecutor, Halligan rushed to present Comey’s case to a grand jury within days of being appointed.