John Bolton Indicted by Maryland Federal Grand Jury
Authorities have been investigating Bolton for allegedly mishandling confidential documents.
A Maryland federal grand jury indicted John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, on Thursday.
The grand jury indicted Bolton on 18 counts for allegedly mishandling confidential documents: eight counts of Transmission of National Defense Information and ten counts of Retention of National Defense Information.
Bolton allegedly used an AOL email account to send diary-like notes to his wife and daughter.
The FBI raided Bolton’s home in August.
The investigation began several years ago over “stealing classified documents and weaponizing them for political purposes.”
The Biden administration shut down the investigation, but the Trump administration’s FBI reopened it.
We found out a few days later that Bolton allegedly sent classified documents on a private server, and a hostile nation intercepted them. As Elizabeth wrote:
The Times emphasized that in order to obtain warrants for the searches, the FBI “would have had to show that they had reason to believe that Mr. Bolton possessed evidence that showed he could have mishandled classified information.”
Additionally, the sources said the investigation picked up steam during the Biden administration, which was when intelligence agents learned that another country had obtained Bolton’s emails. At the time the emails were sent, Bolton was working on his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened. The emails were sent “to people close to him who were helping him gather material” for the book.
Professor Jonathan Turley wrote (I cannot copy and paste from the indictment and my hand hurts):
…The indictment recounts numerous alleged incidents of transmitting classified information to third parties as opposed to the removal of actual documents. Notably, Count 6 is described as the revelation of “intelligence concerning a foreign country’s interactions with an adversary; in quotation marks direct statement collected via intelligence source and methods on a foreign country.” This was allegedly Top secret information. It allegedly included foreign intelligence describing an adversary’s planned attack on a facility.”
…Count 9 is described as Av2 “reveals intelligence about future attack by adversarial group in another country.” It is rated at Top Secret/SI. Count 11 “reveals intelligence that a foreign adversary was planning a missile launch in the future.” Others concern covert programs by the U.S…
…Count 9 is described as Av2 “reveals intelligence about future attack by adversarial group in another country.” It is rated at Top Secret/SI. Count 11 “reveals intelligence that a foreign adversary was planning a missile launch in the future.” Others concern covert programs by…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 16, 2025
In September, an FBI agent told Politico that agents found classified documents during their search.
Man, this will be another stain on the Biden administration if the prosecutors can prove their case. I think we all know why Biden’s DOJ closed it down…Bolton has become such a loudmouth anti-Trump talking head.
Even CNN couldn’t believe the supposed actions of Bolton. I encourage you to watch the video because the reporter could not hide her amazement at what Bolton allegedly did:
Katelyn Polantz: John Bolton, the former National Security Advisor to Donald Trump, a long time federal government official, has been indicted by a grand jury. We are learning that through two different sources, from our producer, Hannah Rabinowitz at the Justice Department, and we have confirmed that the grand jury was in today with the lead prosecutor on that case, the same prosecutor who had been on some of the documents of the search of Bolton’s house just two months ago, or not even two months ago, a prosecutor who also has some experience in investigating these sorts of things. He was a prosecutor that was also working on the Biden classified documents, handling investigation that led to no charges.
But in this situation, the bulk of this case, it’s been going on for several years, and our understanding is that it’s about John Bolton’s use of an email account with AOL, an email account where he was writing diary like notes and summaries of his time as National Security Advisor to himself, at times, even sending them to his wife and daughter.
And that is the sort of thing that the Justice Department does say frequently, not just in the climate of a Trump administration, that that’s something that you should not do. We have seen many charges like this before of other high ranking officials, and that also with John Bolton in those search warrants. And what we’re very likely to see in court going forward is that the Justice Department saying he should have known better.
🚨NOW—John Bolton's been indicted by a grand jury & CNN ADMITS it's NOT political retribution.
"Writing diary notes…as a national security advisor, to himself…the DOJ says is something you should not do. We've seen many charges like this before of high ranking officials." pic.twitter.com/P5tS8TvHma
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 16, 2025
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Comments
Royce Lamberth: “Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States. He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability.”
Call him as a witness.
(Bolton adjusts glasses.)
(Bolton tugs mustache.)
(Small furry critter falls out and scampers across desk.)
“My mustache is the only thing that stands between us and Chaos!” John Bolton
When I was a very young child, my mother said I shouldn’t trust anybody with facial hair.
The rest is history.
Gandalf the Caught
(Bolton squirms in his chair)
Leaving aside the partisan politics angle of this, there is another interesting thing to watch, Bolton, for good or ill, is a member of the Nomenklatura. Regardless of party, they always seem to get off regardless of crimes committed. It will be interesting to see what happens to him compared to say a file clerk who is accused of doing something similar.
Subotai Bahadur
Where’s the “Like” button on this thang! 🙂
You’ve got mail! I remember grabbing the free trial “dial up” discs off that computer magazine every month. When AOL integrated the internet into their browser, the web as we know it was born.
Please, let’s not rewrite history. People with the Netscape browser were visiting websites all over the world while AOL was still a “walled garden” from which AOL customers had no means of getting out to the Internet. When AOL finally let their huddled masses escape into the greater Internet, net veterans cinched their loins in expectation of the inevitable flash flood of technical ignorance and bad netiquette from the newbies, and were not disappointed. The exercise was invaluable in withstanding the tsunami of absolute digital anarchy unleashed by the introduction of WebTV a couple years later,
Well, the people that flooded into the web at the time were still IQ 100+. It was not until the mass production of the subsidized Obama “smartphones” that the IQ level of the web de-evolved well below the societal mean.
Hella good point. Kudos!
And then there were those of us who were using Mosaic (and the HTTP daemon to build those websites) before Andreessen had even graduated.
Yes, AOL was always for noobs, much like the Apple ecosystem is today.
Netscape was my favorite browser back in the day.
Still miss it.
yet another member of the deep state who believe he is above it all. See they come in all political flavors. it’s a club. Jail him and make him eat bugs.
I am saddened by what has happened to John Bolton. Prior to joining the first Trump Administration, he was a reliable conservative and a good analyst. Then after his ouster he seemed to have gone off the deep end in his hatred of Trump. His apparent mishandling of classified information is just another instance of Bolton’s clouded judgment.
Bolton is now what he’s always been a neocon globalist who always seems to want to place the US military and US Diplomacy to serve the interests of the globalists in supporting the post WWII international order even long after the sell by date when the Soviet Empire collapsed.
A stereotypical neocon globalist would be eager to sign away Americans’ rights by signing onto the UN Small Arms limitation treaty… and yet, during the Bush administration, he was NRA’s man-in-the-hole to ensure that exactly that did not happen. And when Obama signed us up to own the Republicans, Bolton was the guy who got it unsigned again under Trump. That causes me to suspect he fits more in the mold of a Republican who developed a case of TDS due to some earlier disagreement with his boss.
You are more forgiving than me, which isn’t the worst quality to have. I am very unwilling to overlook the remainder of his CV based on the Trump Admin following through on a single center/right populist policy with broad public appeal and as I recall was a campaign promise at in the nominal way Trump makes :promises’. I definitely agree he shifted into unhinged territory as his onset of TDS advanced. He was and remains part of the DC cabal who seem to view the USA as somehow required to step permanently into the role of Britain played pre WWII (though after WWI it was on fumes) as the guarantor of the ‘international order’.
While I’d grudgingly agree with a version of that during the Cold War era ….once the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact dissolved that role wasn’t necessary. Nor was it necessary for most of the same DC cabal to sell out the domestic US industrial and manufacturing base to overseas interests and greater corporate profits at the expense of the broad middle class as well as the overall economy and ironically putting our ability to maintain a peer/near peer conflict into question b/c we don’t/can no longer make domestically the items necessary to sustain ourselves in such a prolonged conflict.
He was a CHICKEN HAWK always. The most LOATHSOME type of Republican. Nothing conservative about running up debt and crippling other people’s children to further your nicely enriching foreign policy. Say what you will about Orange Man, he has always said war is a horrible waste of blood & treasure.
This whole episode smacks of arrogance. He knows what the rules are, but he assumes that he can get away with violating them because he wants to profit off his book. He could have done his diary the old fashioned way, in a book, but no, he had to transmit it over email. And retaining the documents? He had 5 years to get rid of them. Why didn’t he?
That’s nice but pales in comparison to what Hillary and Biden did. However, another warhawk down which is a good thing
Yes, Hillary next.
Bolton is toast.
The complaint is very simple and easy to understand.
https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2025/10/bolton-indictment.pdf
The first set of offenses lists eight AOL emails sent that contained secret information. The recipients were not authorized to receive the information.
The second set of offenses list various secret documents that Bolton retained after he was told he could not keep secret documents.
I am curious how Bolton will defend himself.
He won’t have to defend himself. A Maryland liberal jury will find him not guilty.
Holy Sh….. !!! He was passing classified info while he was NSA!
Thanks for that link.
Why is it that we always overlook that Microsoft and Google are also reading Bolton’s emails as well as all of ours? Microsoft OWNS all of my emails according to the User Agreement.
My bet is he will cop a plea once a judge is assigned and more discovery is made.
Who else was involved with Bolton on this?
well Biden kept most of his classified docs in his garage next to his corvette
some were also kept in an unguarded college office.
Did he use an AOL account because he’s so old and doesn’t know better or because he wanted it to get hacked?
A common method for transmitting classified information in the Internet age has been e-mail. There have been cases where the person with access would save drafts (similar to Bolton’s diary notes) but not send an e-mail. A conspirator (often enemy intelligence) who had been given the user name and password would access the account (from anywhere in the world) and print the drafts. This tactic is an attempt to deny that they intended to transmit classified information and usually unsuccessful because the act of using e-mail for storing that information is negligent handling.
I hate to light the conspiracy fire, but…. could it be possible the Biden administration let Bolton know they had evidence he had leaked classified material and gosh nothing will ever come of this as long as you keep hammering Trump on every news show and interview.
It is quite possible that the Biden Administration dropped the investigation of Bolton because it knew it would boomerang back to Biden himself, who retained secret and higher documents that should have never left his VP/Senate offices.
COULD NOT HAPPEN TO A NICER CHICKEN HAWK!!
He deserves a felony just for covering Otis Redding’s classic Sitting on The Dock of The Bay
Government employees get training on how to handle CUI (controlled unclassifed information) and higher. There is no excuse.
To be exact, *everybody* who handles classified material at whatever level are trained on how it is to be handled, checking it out, checking it back in, audited to ensure they are not mishandling it, notified yearly (or periodically) what the penalty is for mishandling it, etc… This case is practically one of the case studies in the material that says “Don’t do this or you will be spending 20 years in Leavenworth.”
This is going to be tough on the predictable Obama appointed judge and jury of leftist Democrats. On the one hand he hates Trump as much as they do. OTOH, he probably is still a registered Republican.
Decisions.
That is why I expect him to cop a plea.